trico libraries news and notes » Swarthmore

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Want the library to buy a certain DVD?  Love the new rug?  Post your questions, thoughts, and purchase suggestions as comments here, and you'll get an answer from a librarian.  Or just read what others have to say.  We want to know what you think!

Want to take a look at the last page?  It's available here!

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« Continue reading "Open Access E-Textbooks: One Solution to the Growing Textbook Dilemma?" »

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The Tri-College Libraries would like to remind you of our subscription to Mideastwire.com, a great resource for current translated news from the Middle East.

Mideastwire started over four and half years ago as a service providing daily briefs translated into English from the Arabic and Persian media - these include all of the top newspapers and some satellite TV. Mideastwire does about 25 briefs each business day covering opinion, business, political and society/cultural pieces that appear in these various media outlets. Each brief also contains precisely translated quotes, statistics and context.

In addition Mideastwire has a searchable database of over 30,000 archived items on their website, making them ideally suited for researchers, journalists, policy makers, advocates etc.

For off campus access, send your university affiliated email address to info@mideastwire.com and they will activate your account.

And for access to more information resources for Middle Eastern Studies, see the library's Subject Portal page on the subject!

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Carpenter ants and woodboring beetle larvae are the primary diet of Pileated Woodpeckers and the answer to one of the library scavenger hunt questions.

« Continue reading "National Information Literacy Month Scavenger Hunt" »

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Twisted Tales & Sinister Scribes: Selections from the Rare Book Room and the Michael M. Rea Collection of Short Stories is on display at McCabe Library through November. This exhibition features the short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce and O. Henry.

Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday will be celebrated in McCabe Library with a reading of some of his grimmest, gloomiest and most gruesome tales on Wednesday, October 28th at 10pm.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks will perform her work at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in Bryn Mawr College’s Goodhart Theater as part of the 2009-10 Creative Writing Program Reading Series.

The Creative Writing Program’s Reading Series is free and open to the public.

Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most exciting and acclaimed playwrights in American drama today. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog and is a MacArthur “genius” award recipient.

In addition to Topdog/Underdog, Parks’ plays include In the Blood, Venus (a 1996 OBIE Award winner), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (the 1990 OBIE Award winner for Best New American Play), and The America Play.

Parks’ screenplays include Girl 6 and The Great Debaters. Her first novel is Getting Mother’s Body, and she has also written a musical, Ray Charles Live!

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We've heard your suggestions.  Starting today, there are 5 Apple Power Adapters for individual checkout in McCabe.  Stop by the Reserve Desk to borrow one.  They'll check out for 4 hours at a time, just like the laptops.

Be sure to bring them back on time, or else you will accrue penalty points which may have an effect on your privileges to borrow reserve items overnight.

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The ensemble, Melody of China is coming to Swarthmore College on Friday, October 23rd to give a lecture demonstration and performance in Lang Concert Hall.  Want to check 'em out beforehand?  You can hear their work on this recording from Swarthmore's Underhill Library. 

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Doing research over Fall Break but won't be near campus? Don't worry - No matter where you are, you can easily access your Library's extensive online resources!

Bryn Mawr: Go to the Library home page and click Off Campus Access under the menu at left. After logging in with your email account, you'll be brought to the Library's front page, from which you can navigate to the resources you need.

Haverford: Current Haverford faculty, students and staff may request an Off Campus VPN login account. With this account and the VPN client installed on your computer, you can access the Library's thousands of online journals and databases from anywhere in the world. Go to VPN at Haverford for more information about downloading the software and requesting an account.

Swarthmore: Click the Off Campus Access link on Tripod on the Library's web page, or just click here and enter your network username and password.

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Looking for credible sources of information on H1N1?  Our new research guide offers information and announcements from Tri-College offices, links to government resources, news and more!  Click here to view the guide.

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In our most recent poll, you told us all about what you'd change in tripod - everything from how and what it searches to what it actually looks like.  If you have other suggestions, questions, or want to elaborate, leave a comment!

If you could change one thing about tripod, what would it be?  

• Make Notify Me When This Item Is Available Button Rather Than Having To Request
• The Colors
• Allow Off-campus Sign-in By Email Password (Which I Can Remember) Rather Than Li
• More Info On Specific Subjects Of Articles And Books
• Make The Search Function More Powerful.
• Make The Home Page Less Cluttered. There Is Information Overload With All Of The
• A Book Or Material Preview Function Similar To That Found On Amazon.Com.
• Make Sure That The Group Study Rooms Are For Groups And Not Individuals!!
• Make Sure All Listed Electronic Journals Are Accessible Off-campus And On-campus
• Nothing
• Remind Students To Try Ezborrow Before Recalling A Book From A Fellow Patron.
• Remove The Renew All Button, Or Make It Harder To Click By Accident.
• Stop Making Keyword The Default. Title Should Be.
• The Clutter. Redesign The Record!
• Title Rather Than Keyword As The Default.
• To Be Able To Cancel Tripod Requests Online.
• To Make The Subject Search More Prominent So Students Realize They Can Use It To
• Make It Into An Application On The Iphone (And Other Mobile Devices)!
• Make It Impossible To Recall An Item If There Is An Available Copy Somewhere In
• Make It Easier To Log In To Your Account! Use Your Student Id Number Instead Of
• An Easy Way To Request That The Library Buys A Dvd Or Book.
• Basic Search Seperates Genres From Stack Books
• Be Able To Search All Journal Articles From A Centralized Area
• Be Able To Search For Or Exclude Government Documents.
• Coloring And Layout
• Explanations For What In Cat Dept Or On Search Means
• Fix Search Results Display For Voluminous Works (Orientalism) & Prolific Authors
• Give Swarthmore A Better Color Than Dirty Yellow, Something That Will Stand Out
• Have More Relevant Results For Author Search So You Can Search 1st Name, Last Na
• I Hate How The Subject Search Is By First Word Of A Term Only.
• I Would Change The Fact That Some Databases Like Grove Music Dont Work Off Campu
• If You Liked This Item, You Might Also Like _. -a La Amazon
• It Is Annoying To Constantly Have To Relog In. Can We Have A Remember Me On This
• It Should Be Easier To Request Materials That Arent In Tripod And To Track Wheth
• It Would Learn To Ignore The F (For Folio) When I Am Searching For A Bibliograph
• Words In Title Search

(Comments got cut off after 80 characters - sorry!  We could usually tell what you meant though.)

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A reading by best-selling author Lorrie Moore from her new novel A Gate at the Stairs opens Bryn Mawr College’s yearlong Creative Writing Program Reading Series.The Creative Writing Program Reading Series is free and open to the public.

Moore will read from her work at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Thomas Great Hall. In addition to A Gate at the Stairs, Moore is the author of the story collections Birds of America and Self-Help, and the novels Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Anagrams.

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Since last Monday, the Government Printing Office (GPO) has been experiencing problems with its PURL server.  What this means is that most electronic government publications (the ones that come from GPO) can't be accessed through Tripod (at least not in the usual, obvious way; see below).  Here's the announcement from FDLP:

http://www.fdlp.gov/component/content/article/19-general/483-purl-server-update2

In the meantime, if you need an electronic government document, look in the Note section of the item record in Tripod.  While the "Click on the following" link doesn't work (that's the one that points to http://purl.access.gpo.gov), there should be an alternate URL in the Note section. In some--but not all!--cases, copying and pasting that URL (the one that begins with http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov) into your browser will take you to the document. This won't work for everything, but if you need a document in a hurry, you may want to try it out.

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Students, professors, staff members!

We're working to make the Tripod catalog more convenient to use -- by building a special version to use from your phone!  Contribute to this brief survey to let us know what we should include:

Tripod for mobile devices survey

With your help, we can meet your needs!

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McCabe Library is hosting an exhibition of historic photographs, documents, and artifacts related to the history of Swarthmore College and of the Borough from their beginnings in the mid 19th century through the 20th century. Items in the exhibition will be drawn from the collections of the Swarthmore College Archives and Friends Historical Library. The exhibition celebrates a new book, Swarthmore Borough, written by Susanna Morikawa and Patricia O'Donnell, which will be published in September.  The exhibition runs from August 17-October 9, 2009.

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"The issues bound up in the pursuit of love, happiness, money and status were those of Austen's day and they lie at the very heart of her writing. While the final pages of every Austen novel celebrate the very best kind of union, based on compatibility, affection and respect, alliance contracted as the result of other inducements provide significant counterpoints."

Find Jane Austen and Marriage in Tripod 

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As ITS works to resolve issues surrounding the transition to our new email server, we expect there to be intermittent access to library resources from off campus throughout the day.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Should you need assistance obtaining a specific article during this time, please contact Kate Carter (kcarter2, x.8485).

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The Tricollege Libraries now provide access to the full text of the Philadelphia Tribune, from 1912 to the present!  

Founded in 1884, the Tribune is the oldest continually published African-American newspaper in the U.S. Read more about the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Tribune in this Philadelphia Inquirer story.

The Philadelphia Tribune is available in full page images and article images from ProQuest Historical Newspapers (1912 - 2001) and in full text  from Ethnic Newswatch (1991 - present).

Click here to access the Tribune!

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Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections has gone live with our new website. Based on the look and feel of the main Haverford College site, the new Special Collections site incorporates numerous utilities that bring dynamic content to the site. Up-to-date calendar items appear in the Upcoming Events section alongside an improved New & Noteworthy Blog and a list of New Quaker Books.

The main page also features our Current Exhibition and open hours for the day. A device known as the “Tridget” will be familiar to users of the main library site. Ours is customized to include not only a search box for Tripod, but also interfaces for Triptych, the Tri-College Digital Library, online Finding Aids, and Web Archives of Haverford, Quaker and Peace related sites.

Pages below the main page include those titled About, Collections, Research, Services, Exhibitions, our annual Gest Fellowship and our Blog. The About page contains the usual contact information and staff listing, and also includes links to our online presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Collections navigation now relies more heavily on visual representations of our offerings and includes when possible search boxes for individual subcollections. Several new Finding Aids have been put online recently and there are many more to come in the following months.

The new Research page includes tips for successful research in Special Collections and links to subject guides of relevance to those using our resources. The Services page now includes a fee schedule for Copying, Scanning, and so on. The Exhibitions page gives detailed information on our current and past exhibits, including ongoing online exhibits. The Gest Fellowship page includes the current instructions and criteria for applying for our one-month research fellowships and includes a list of all current and former Gest Fellows, their institutional affiliations and the topics of their study.

Our New and Noteworthy Blog is a feature continuing from the old site, but we have switched blogging software to WordPress, which allows our content to be featured on the College’s main site and which also feeds to our main page as well as to Twitter and Facebook. The Blog and our New Quaker Books features may be accessed by subscription using an RSS news reader as well as via e-mail notification.

The process of designing these new pages was a several-months long undertaking led by Digital Collections Librarian, David Conners. Several of our student employees did much of the coding and photography featured on the site, and staff of the Communications office and the Library were invaluable in helping us with some of the more advanced dynamic applications. We hope you enjoy the new site and find it useful. Questions and suggestions may be sent to us at hc-special@haverford.edu.

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A trio of tripeds are currently on display in McCabe Library. Philip Stern '84, made these “hybrid” sculptures of copper tubing and cement—blending representation of human forms with abstract curves and found objects. Stern is generally interested in ideas questioning the precise definition of human identity—where we stand in relation to other animals, plants, and objects, and how we cope with a radically changing environment. After studying art at Swarthmore, he went on to receive an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in sculpture. The three works on display in the library are Time Curling In (2004), Hybrid 1 and Hybrid 2 (2006).

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On Wednesday, April 29 at 7:30 Cornelius Eady will be reading from his works in the Ely Room, Wyndham at Bryn Mawr College.

Poet June Jordan remarked of Cornelius Eady that he "leads and then cuts a line like no one else:  following the laughter and the compassionate path of dauntless imagination, these poems beeline or zigzag always to the jugular."  Eady is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems and Brutal Imagination, which was a National Book Award finalist.
 
A book signing will follow the reading.

Read more on Eady at Literature Online.

Watch Eady read in the 2003 Lunch Poems series at UC Berkeley.

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As the final event associated with the exhibition of illustrations from Dante's Divine Comedy from the Tri-Colleges, Haverford College Special Collections and the Bryn Mawr Film Institute present a special screening of Sean Meredith's updated movie version of "Dante's Inferno." Set against an all-too-familiar urban backdrop of used car lots, gated communities, strip malls and the U.S. Capitol, Meredith's take on the literary classic uses hand-drawn paper puppets and a Victorian-era toy theater to tell Dante's tale of sin and redemption.

Wednesday, April 29, 7:30 pm. Bryn Mawr Film Institute. All students with ID get in for free! And a reduced admission flier for others is available here.

For more information, please contact John Anderies 610-896-1161 janderie@haverford.edu

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Tobias Wolff will be reading at Bryn Mawr on Wednesday, April 15 at 7:30pm in Thomas Great Hall.

Tobias Wolff's books include the memoirs This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army; the short novel The Barracks Thief; three collections of stories, In The Garden of the North American Martyrs, Back in the World, and The Night in Question; and the novel Old School.  His most recent work, Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories, was called "a towering monument of a book" in the Washington Post.  His work has received the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the PEN/Malamud Award.

A book signing will follow the reading.

Tobias Wolff will also meet informally with interested students from the Bi-College community to talk about fiction and nonfiction from 4-5pm on Wednesday, April 15 in the English House Lecture Hall.  Everyone is welcome.

Read more about Wolff in Literature Online.

Watch Wolff in conversation on FORA.tv.

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We have just learned that the EZBorrow system malfunctioned last Thursday evening through Friday morning. Any requests entered between 7 pm, 4/9 until 9:15 am, 4/10, have been lost.  If you placed an EZBorrow request during that time, you will need to enter it again.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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Have some thoughts you’d like to share with ITS and Library about…

• Computers on campus?
• Printing?
• Software?
• Support?

Come to McCabe on Monday, April 13th at 8 pm and tell us. (in the “Popular Reading Room” aka the room where the coffee is at night)

The ITS Client Services team and librarians will discuss projects and ideas - and we really need your input!

We’ll answer your questions too.

And we’ll buy pizza.

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Participate in a short focus group to learn about and discuss the Google Book Project and the future of books online. Fruit, cookies and more will be served!

Tuesday, March 24 at 9:00pm in the Popular Reading Room, 1st Floor McCabe

For more information contact Ashley Davies at adavies1@swarthmore.edu

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Off campus access may be interrupted Wednesday evening, as the ITS systems team works to resolve the remaining email issues.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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The Spring Vacation 2009 hours of operation are now posted for McCabe, Cornell, and Underhill libraries at Swarthmore.

Follow the link for more details:

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Poet Mary Jo Salter, whose 2008 collection A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems was called “deeply human, brilliantly realized and refreshingly perceptive” by BookPage, will give a reading at Bryn Mawr on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ely Room at Wyndham Alumnae House. A book signing will follow the reading.

A Phone Call to the Future collects new work and a substantial body of poems from her previous collections: Henry Purcell in Japan; Unfinished Painting; the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award-nominated Sunday Skaters; A Kiss in Space; and Open Shutters, a 2003 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Salter also has to her credit a children’s book, The Moon Comes Home, and a play, Falling Bodies, which was first produced in 2004.

• Find more of Salter's work in Tripod
• Read about Salter in Literature Online
• Visit Salter's website
• Watch Salter on the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
  

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"Blinking Sam, 'Johnson's Grimly Ghost' and the Haverford Portrait of Samuel Johnson"

Talk by Robert Folkenflik, Distinguished Visitor in the English Department

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 -- 4:30 pm; Tea at 4:15 pm

Magill Library, Quaker & Special Collections

Robert Folkenflik is Professor of English/Comparative Literature, UC-Irvine. His books include Samuel Johnson, Biographer; The Culture of Autobiography: Constructions of Self-Representation; and The English Hero: 1660-1800. Folkenflik's research interests include: Eighteenth-Century; Renaissance; Novel; Autobiography; Biography; History of Literary Theory; Literature and Other Arts; Cultural Studies.

For more information please contact Laura McGrane (610-896-1155) lmcgrane@haverford.edu

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Click on the thumbnail for the latest issue of Toilet Papers! This week, learn about how the library can improve your love life (with a collection of books on sexual health) and about the newest exhibit in McCabe (Abraham Lincoln and the Quakers).

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MAN ON WIRE

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Have you noticed ebrary's new interface? With QuickView you can now browse through a book without having to download their reader, and search result sets include a new relevance ranking. Many of the features you've come to love are still available in the reader, such as your bookshelf and notetaking, of course! Most importantly, you can now print 20 pages at a time up to 40 pages per session!

Curious about which ebrary titles are used most often at Swarthmore? Here are the top titles for 2008:

• Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
• Understanding the Industrial Revolution
• Representations and Characters of Groups
• Apocalypse Soon? Wagering on Warnings of Global Catastrophe
• Management of Peace Processes
• Studies in Islamic Legal Theory
• Recreating Africa : Kinship, Culture, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770
• Between Sundays: Black Women's Everyday Struggles of Faith
• Keepin' It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White

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Gerald Stern will read on Wednesday, February 11, at  7:30 p.m.in the
Ely Room of Wyndham at BMC.

Gerald Stern is the author of 16 books of poems, including Everything is Burning, American Sonnets, and Last Blue, and a book of essays, What I Can’t Bear Losing: Notes From a Life. The Southern Review declared, "We might like to think of Gerald Stern as our quintessentially Whitmanian American poet, but he is far too literate, too worldly, to seem typically American." Poet Edward Hirsch remarked, "Gerald Stern is a romantic with a sense of humor, an Orphic voice living inside history, a sometimes comic, sometimes tragic visionary." Reading sponsored by an anonymous gift and the Marianne Moore Fund for the Study of Poetry.

• Find Stern's books in  Tripod.

• Read more about Stern in Literature Resource Center.

• Read poems by Stern in Literature Online.

• View a documentary on Stern at Poetrymattersnow.org.

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Swarthmore College Libraries recently subscribed to 2 new databases, and added a new feature to one of our existing databases.

Paratext's Reference Universe is unlike any other library reference database available today, allowing patrons to search the article titles and complete back-of-the-book indexes to over 12,000 specialized encyclopedias, compendia, handbooks and reference works published after 1985. Reference Universe provides a customized view of our electronic and print reference holdings. Searchers instantly know which titles are held by Swarthmore, and can click right through to online articles in all major reference databases, as well as see the local records in Tripod.

China Academic Journals is the most comprehensive, full-text database of Chinese-language journals in the world. Each series contains journals in different subject areas.  Swarthmore purchased two collections: the Literature/History/Philosophy collection and the Economics/Politics/Law collection.

LexisNexis Statistical DataSets, part of the Statistical Universe product, aggregates over 100 public domain and licensed quantitative datasets and makes that data available from within a single interface. Users scan the contents of these datasets, select subjects and variables of interest, and view the data in side-by-side tables and charts. The product also provides accompanying metadata in the form of citation records to provide details on how the data were collected and obtained.

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Having problems with the FindIt! button?  Please let us know via the Report a Problem link!

We've heard reports of buggy FindIt! results recently, but we need more information in order to troubleshoot.  Anytime you don't get the full text when you expect to, or if you get an unusual result on the screen, please fill in our feedback form.

Added benefit: if you let us know what wasn't working, we will do our best to connect you with the resource you're seeking.  It's a win-win situation! 

Thanks for your help.

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The imaginative vision embodied in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy has inspired pictorial illustration since shortly after its first recounting in manuscript in the 1300s. This exhibition features books and prints from the collections of Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges and, over the course of three installations, presents illustrations of all 100 cantos of the Divine Comedy. Among the works on display will be anonymous 15th- and 16th-century woodcuts, the canonical 18th- and 19th-century illustrations of John Flaxman, William Blake, and Gustave Doré, 20th-century renderings by Franz von Bayros, Amos Nattini, Salvador Dalí, Leonard Baskin and Tom Phillips, plus the contemporary graphic novels of Sandow Birk and Gary Panter.

January 20 to May 22, 2009
Sharpless Gallery, Magill Library, Haverford College

Inferno: January 20 to March 1, 2009
Pugatorio: March 2 to April 12, 2009
Paradise: April 13 to May 22

Related events:

Lecture: Seeing Through the Dark Woods
By Christian Dupont
Followed by a Reception
Philips Wing, Magill Library
Monday, February 9, 2009 - 4:30 pm

Mini-Exhibition: Haverford's 1472 Foligno Edition of "La Divina Commedia di Dante"
Special Collections Reading Room, Magill Library
March 25, 2009

Mini-Exhibition: Dante's Divine Comedy in Graphic Novel
Special Collections Reading Room, Magill Library
April 15, 2009

Dante's Inferno: The Movie
Screening at Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 - 7:30 pm
Free for students

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Check out this recent award winning dvd from the Tri-Co libraries!

INTO GREAT SILENCE

An examination of life inside the Grande Chartreuse, the head monastery of the reclusive Carthusian Order in France, one of the world's most ascetic monasteries and home to the Catholic Church's strictest order where the monks dedicate themselves entirely to the service of God and to spiritual life, in permanent silence. SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SPECIAL JURY PRIZE  more info...

View the trailer...

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Seniors, remember to bring your books to the Circulation desk for renewal and updated date-due cards--the items you have checked out are due back December 19!

Videos and periodicals may not go home over break, but you can access a variety of other library resources when you're away from campus. Go to EZProxy to log in with your Swarthmore network user name and password, and then connect to the library's research databases in the Subject Portal.

Good luck with finals, and have a great winter break!

Exam and Winter Break Hours

McCabe Library

Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m.-2 a.m.

Friday: 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sunday: CLOSED

Monday, December 22-Tuesday December 23: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

December 24-January 4: CLOSED

Cornell Library

Monday-Thursday: 8:15 a.m.-1 a.m.

Friday: 8:15 a.m.-10 p.m.

Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED

Monday, December 22: 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

December 23-January 4: CLOSED

Underhill Library

Monday-Thursday: 9 a.m.-1 a.m.

Friday: 9 a.m.-9:30 p.m.

Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED

Monday, December 22: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

December 23-January 4: CLOSED

(from the December 15, 2008 edition of Toilet Papers: Rest Stop Reading from the Swarthmore College Libraries) 

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Have you ever wondered about the huge globe on Level 2 of McCabe?  You may have heard the rumors--"It can never, ever leave the library!"  "It used to spin and light up!"  "Hawaii's missing!"

Well, here are the facts: The globe was the gift of Arthur Magill '29 and cost $12,000 when installed in 1967. Made by Rand McNally, it consists of two hemispheres of reinforced fiberglass and epoxy.  The library has tried to find it a new home, but there's no way to safely remove it intact.

Yes, it did spin and light up.  And Hawaii has indeed vanished.

Itching to explore more of the world? Check out some of the many atlases in the Reference Collection...

• Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya REF +G2202 .H5 Z87
  
• Atlas of the Celtic World REF +D70 .H34
• The Gay and Lesbian Atlas REF HQ76.3 .U5 G355
• Japan: A Bilingual Atlas REF G2355 .J37

There are also great maps available online--for contemporary, historical, thematic, and topographic maps, visit the Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection (University of Texas at Austin).

(from the December 1, 2008 edition of Toilet Papers: Rest Stop Reading from the Swarthmore College Libraries)

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Check out this recent award winning dvd from the Tri-Co libraries!

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD

"It is a poem of oddness and beauty. ." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

An up-close and personal look at one of Antarctica's lesser-known inhabitants: the human. Join Werner Herzog as he shows individuals who work, play, and struggle to live in some of the world's worst conditions.  WINNER - DOCUMENTARY AWARD EDINBURGH INTL FILM FESTIVAL 2008.

 film trailer

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Welcome to the Banned Books Blog: Where issues concerning intellectual freedom and censorship are discussed thoughtfully. Hosted by Swarthmore College Library.

According to the ALA (American Library Association), the following are the

10 most challenged books of 2007*:

1) And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
2) The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
3) Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes

4) The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

5) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

6) The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
7) TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
8) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
9) It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris

10) The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

*Books are listed from most to least challenged

Please post your comments below

« Continue reading "Banned Books" »

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New!  The Tri-College Libraries have all begun subscribing to the iPOLL database, from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research!

This database provides access to more than half a million public opinion poll questions (and answers!) from 1935 through the present time.  You can search iPOLL by keyword, topic, polling organization, or date.  Questions come from all the major polling organizations including Gallup, Harris, Pew, and the major news agencies.  All polls have U.S. national adult samples; neither state samples nor foreign samples are included.

Our subscription also grants us access to RoperExpress, a service that allows you to download the original poll dataset so that you can conduct your own statistical analysis of the responses.  These downloadable datasets are available for 75% of the polls in the Roper Center collection.

Give iPOLL a try and see what you think!  (And while you're at it, take a look at another database of public opinion: Polling the Nations, which includes foreign, state, and local-level samples.  Polling the Nations covers surveys from 1986 to the present.)

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New!  The Tri-College Libraries have all begun subscriptions to Oxford Islamic Studies Online!

This amazing resource allows you to search the full text of more than 3,000 encyclopedia articles from major Oxford works on Islamic studies, as well as primary source documents, maps, images, and timelines.  It's the most comprehensive resource available for the study of the history, people, politics, and cultures of the Islamic world.

Interested in the Qur'an?  Oxford Islamic Studies Online also contains two full-text interpretations (one in verse and one in prose).  It also provides first electronic version of Hanna Kassis' Concordance of the Qur'an.

 
Try Oxford Islamic Studies Online today!

Image: Portrait of the nineteenth-century Qajar ruler Fath Ali Shah, reproduced in Blair, Sheila S. and Jonathan M. Bloom. "Art and Architecture." In The Oxford History of Islam. Ed. John L. Esposito. Oxford Islamic Studies Online.

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Great news for historians and genealogists!  The Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore College libraries have joined Haverford in subscribing to Ancestry.com, Library Edition.

Search U.S. Census records from 1790 through 1930, by name!  View immigration records, passenger lists, WW II draft registration cards, public records directories, photos and maps, and much more.  It's a real treasure.

For more ways to do "people research" please consult these library research guides:

• Biographies
• Genealogy
  

For help with searching, contact a reference librarian!

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of May 12, 2008

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies: From 1897 to Present

Call Number: +REF PN1995.9 .S26 H38 2001

Recommended by: Amanda Watson, Reference and Instruction Intern

Science fiction fans and novices alike will find this encyclopedia worth browsing.  Part reference work and part highly opinionated movie review source, this book offers an overview of the genre, with entries on famous and not-so-famous movies.  Those looking for movie recommendations will find plenty, and those who already know the genre inside and out will get a kick out of author C.J. Henderson's reviews ("Watching people fall off the couch when the big dance number comes can make this one worth seeing," reads a typical entry).  Appendices include a list of science fiction movies adapted from literary works and a survey of science fiction at the Oscars.

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Tell us what you think! We are conducting a trial for a service to provide book reviews from Booklist, Choice, Publisher’s Weekly, and Library Journal. These reviews are available in the Tripod Catalog for titles reviewed by those sources. Most of the reviews are for titles published within the last 10 years, though a few go back as far as the mid 1980’s.

Some examples include:

The Paradox of Choice : Why More is Less / Barry Schwartz

http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b2654429

In Defense of Food : an Eater's Manifesto / Michael Pollan
http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b3298770

http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b2974723


Are reviews helpful to you as a student, faculty member, or researcher?

Let us know. We’d love to hear from you!

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of May 5, 2008

The Oxford Companion to Wine

Call Number: REF TP548 .O76 1999

Recommended by: Ed Fuller, Reference Librarian

If your idea of wine tasting is passing around a bottle in a paper bag with friends, perhaps The Oxford Companion to Wine will raise your oenological consciousness.  In an alphabetical arrangement, this large, well-illustrated  volume defines and explains almost everything about wine and wine making (how about a brief history of the corkscrew).  The editor, Jancis Robinson, has been on television with her own wine course, and this is an award-winning writer about the grape.  After reading this book, you won't whine about the food in the dining hall, but about the vulgar vintages served with dinner.

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Discover the treasures that often elude the public eye and swim in the
dark depths of the Rare Book Room.  Mellon Library Interns will be holding
a workshop on Thursday, May 1st, to expose what truly lurks behind those
closed doors.  1:00-1:45PM.  Meet on Level III of McCabe Library, near the Feature Films.

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of April 28, 2008

Atlas of the Baby Boom Generation

Call Number: REF E169 .12 .H355 2000

Recommended by: Meg Spencer, Science Librarian

Want to figure out what makes your parents tick?  Check out this atlas that covers the lives of those Baby Boomers, defined as those born between 1946 and 1964.  Each chapter covers a post-World War II decade from the late 40's through "the future" and discusses the politics, social structures, entertainment and much more for each ten year span.  A good source of statistics as well as an overview of a variety of trends, both serious and fun. 

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The Tri-College Libraries are participating in a pilot program to offer online access to materials from our music collections. In addition to some classes and ensembles that are trying out this service, it is available to other users in the Tri-Co who want to give it a whirl.  The software, called Variations, allows users to listen to streaming audio files, as well as to create bookmarks, playlists, and listening drills.  Scanned scores will be a feature to come at a later date.

The Variations software can be downloaded here.  And a list of available recordings may be found in Tripod by searching for “Variations Digital Music Library.” 

Please contact librarians Michelle Oswell, Donna Fournier, or John Anderies if you have any difficulties getting set up or have any questions about the service.

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Math and Voting is the theme of Math Awareness Month (April 2008)

Vote for your favorite candidate and see how voting methods influence election outcomes.

Find out more about the mathematics of voting. 

or check out the following books in tripod:

Chaotic elections! A mathematician looks at voting

The mathematics of voting and elections: a hands-on approach

 

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As part of an ongoing efforts to improve their website to better meet the needs of students, researchers, and librarians, JSTOR is developing a new platform which will enhance navigation and ease of use, as well as provide more tools and capabilities for users.   The new system will also allow the organization to more easily add new features and a greater array of scholarly content.

We anticipate the new platform will replace the current JSTOR site today, April 4.  With new features such as:

• Search within results
• Run recent searches
• Improved image searching
• MyJSTOR allows saving citations over multiple sessions
• Thumbnails of pages
• Simplified printing and improved accessibility for PDFs
• More robust browsing
• Improved navigation

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Interested in working at the library this summer?  We're is now accepting applications for employment! Pick one up at the far end of the circulation desk in McCabe. And if you can you read Japanese, we have the summer job for you! 

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The library is working with ebrary to better understand ebook usage and needs among college and university students.   If you have strong feelings about ebooks, they'd appreciate it if you took a brief Student E-book Survey.  Their survey should take less than 20 minutes to complete, and almost all the questions are optional.

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of March 31, 2008

A Visual Dictionary of Architecture

Call Number: REF NA 31 .C44 1995

Recommended by: Amanda Watson, Reference and Instruction Intern

Learn what's lurking behind the walls, literally, with this illustrated guide to key concepts in architecture.  The line drawings in this book take you from an overview of the architecture field to the structural elements of buildings to diagrams of how an architect renders three-dimensional spaces on paper.  Especially striking: the entry on houses, with illustrations that range from a cross-section of an igloo to a rendering of a Japanese house, the timeline history of architecture, and the entry on ornament, which shows decorative elements from all over the world. 

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of March 24, 2008

The MIPT Terrorism Annual 2006

Call Number: REF HV6432 .M57 2006

Recommended by: Anne Garrison, Humanities Librarian

This fascinating and timely annual is produced by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a nonprofit independent organization dedicated to disseminating information about research and development in counterterrorism.  The work examines trends in terrorist activites and provides graphs, data, and historical context for various terrorist techniques.  One section, for example, looks at the reasons behind the growing numbers of female bombers.  This is a somber but quick and informative reference book.  See also their highly regarded website at www.mipt.org for more information. 

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of March 17, 2008

Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things

Call Number: REF AG6 .P37 1989

Recommended by: Ed Fuller, Reference Librarian

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The Trico libraries are testing out several online resources, and we need your opinion!  Please check out the list, try any that strike your interest, and submit your comments.  Your feedback is invaluable as we decide whether to subscribe to these resources.

The trial databases include:

• Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a database of images and information
  
• The FIAF Index to Film Periodicals and info on film archives
• Oxford Islamic Studies Online, a rich and diverse resource
  
• Several sources for 17th, 18th, and 19th century newspapers from the UK
• Several sources for information on countries of the world
  

Access these resources at the Trial Databases page.  Thanks for your help!  And act fast: most trials end in early April.

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Interested in Islam or the Qur'an?  The Tri-College Libraries now subscribe to two great resources for your research pleasure.

The Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an (edited by BMC's President-Elect, Jane Dammen McAuliffe!) is an "encyclopaedic dictionary of qur'anic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'anic studies."

The Encyclopaedia of Islam is a comprehensive work with entries on the religion itself, the Muslim people, and the ethnography and geography of the countries in which the religion is practiced.  This online subscription provides access to the entire second edition, and to the currently-in-development third edition.

Act now, temporary trial access!  While you're at it, please check out Oxford Islamic Studies Online, to which we have access until April 11.  This is a comprehensive resource comprising a number of different reference works and information sources.  If you like it, please make a comment on the Trials page.  We need your input so that we can make an informed decision about subscribing.

Salaam alaikum!

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of March 3, 2008

The Order of Things

Call Number: REF AG105 .K57 1998

Recommended by: Ed Fuller

The subtitle says "How everything in the world is organized into hierarchies, structures, and pecking orders," and this is carried through with rigor and vigor.  Philosophy and sports (sumo wrestling ranks), types of bridges, the Seven Holy Sacraments, and the Kings of England (and rulers elsewhere) and much more are conveniently listed and well-indexed.  Perhaps dull to read, it is fascinating to flip through. 

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You are invited to join

Jake Brunkard '08

Mark Kharas '08

Trude Raizen '08

The three winners of this year's A. Edward Newton Student Book Competition Awards will discuss their experiences creating their book collections

Come enjoy the talk accompanied by refreshments at our reception on the first floor of McCabe Library.

Thursday, February 28th    4:15 PM

McCabe Popular Reading Lounge

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of February 25th, 2008 

Financial Aid for Study and Training Abroad, 2006-2008

Call Number: +REF LB 2337.2 F576 2006/08

Recommended by: Daisy Larios, Mellon Fellow

If you are getting itchy feet and need a change of scenery after years of attending Swarthmore, look no further.  Just look in the Graduate Students section or head straight to the Geographic Index if you need help funding  your graduate school studies in some "exotic" locale, or head to the Subject Index to look up an academic program that interests you.  For those well-organized students who need to fit writing their applications into their busy schedules, there is also a Calendar Index that lists the various financial aid programs by filing dates. 

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of February 11, 2008

Encyclopedia of Urban Legends

Call Number: REF GR105.34 .B78 2001 

Recommended by: Anne Garrison, Humanities Librarian

We've read them all online or told them to our friends: urban legends about alligators in the sewers and livers stolen from sleeping bodies; unbelievable stories that nonetheless are great fun to relate.  Stories like these have circulated throughout society for decades, and the Encyclopedia of Urban Legends provides a compulsively readable introduction to the scholarly side of urban legend studies.  The author, a very well-respected folklorist and urban legend scholar, includes in his tome cross references, plot summaries, and variations of an astonishing number of urban legends.  Although the focus is on American legends, there is good coverage of international tales.  So browse a bit and read about the 1950's legend "spiders in the hairdo" and how it connects to both a medieval prototype and a Gary Larson cartoon of the 90's.  Or sink your teeth into the very chilling "licking hand" legend, and learn its connection to the "aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light" stories that caused you such nightmares in junior high.

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Traditionally, the thought of accessing microforms can cause apprehension and misgiving.  Dispel these notions- attend our Microform Open House on Valentine's Day.  The latest in microform reader technology will be unveiled in ongoing demonstrations of our new scanning software.  Using microforms has never before been so versatile.  Pick up a chocolate Valentine at the same time!

 Thursday, February 14th

12:30-1:30PM

McCabe Library, Level III 

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Religion and Spirituality Week may have been last week, but you can still enjoy the great exhibit sponsored by the Interfaith Center in McCabe Library, 2nd floor Cratsley Lounge.

The exhibit displays books, artifacts, and objects from various religions and beliefs represented on campus, including Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá’í Faith.

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Curious, Useful, Edifying, Inspiring:

The Reference Books of McCabe Library

Staff Pick for the Week of February 11, 2008 

Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Photography

Call Number: REF TR462 .E5 2006 V. 1-3

Recommended by: Meg Spencer, Science Librarian

This 3-volume encyclopedia offers a comprehensive overview of one hundred years of an art form/technology that went from the invention of the Brownie camera in 1898 to the widespread use of the digital camera in the 1990s.  The encyclopedia covers the great photographers of the past century, plus entries on various photographic themes (feminist photography, conceptual photography, etc.), technological developments, and much more.  Each volume has a set of color plates, and most articles are accompanied by black & white images.

You'll find the Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Photography on display above the Reference Desk in McCabe Library. 

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The spring exhibition in Canaday Library, Intimate Devotion: The Book of Hours in Medieval Religious Practice, will feature some of Bryn Mawr's most gorgeous medieval manuscripts and printed books and an extraordinary group of novice curators.

 
The exhibition is the work of the students in Professor Martha Easton's undergraduate seminar last fall, "The Book of Hours and the Art of Devotion." It will open on Thursday, January 31, with a panel discussion featuring the student curators. The program will begin at 5 p.m. in Carpenter 21, and will be followed by a reception and viewing of the exhibition in the Rare Book Room of Canaday Library.

 
Martha Easton, lecturer in History of Art, said she developed the course so that students could work with original objects, but also have to think about how to present the subject to a wider public.

 
"From the beginning this has been their show," she said. "Collectively they came up with the theme, decided what aspects of the book of hours they wanted to highlight, and chose the objects and images they wanted to display. I have been very impressed with the way they collaborated together in a professional way, listening to divergent points of view but finding the common ground between them, meeting deadlines and commenting on each other's work. The end result has been a cohesive and thoughtful examination of the book of hours in medieval religious life."

 
Thirteen students participated in the class, including eight from Bryn Mawr, four from Haverford, and one from Swarthmore. The students are Bianca Bromberger '08 (HC), Jacob Carroll '09 (HC), Jenny Castle '09, Erina Donnelly '08, Brittaney Golden '08, Talia Greenwald '08, Kira Grennan '08 (SC),  Lavanya Jayakar '09, Margaret Livingston '08 (HC), Lindsey Merikas '08 (HC), Annie Morse '09, Alex Solomon '08, and Arianae Tsavaris '09. Special Collections Librarian Marianne Hansen helped the class with expertise on the physical production of medieval manuscripts and also served as the exhibition coordinator. 

 
The exhibition will be open from January 31 through May 30. The exhibition hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. For additional information, contact the Special Collections Department at 610-526-6576. 

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Whitney Ale, teaching assistant for Haverford sculpture professor Marianne Weil, spent the tail end of fall semester restoring a 150-year old plaster- cast bust of the goddess Diana that once sat atop the shelves of the old Haverford Library.  As reported in a previous blog posting, busts of Diana and Aristotle were recently identified and discovered on campus.

Ale, a senior anthropology major from Bryn Mawr, has put in over 20 hours of work cleaning and repairing the sculpture and predicts just as many hours before she finishes.  The first step in Ale’s restoration process is to sand the entire bust by hand with a fine grit sandpaper.  This step removes small nicks and gives the bust an even and clean appearance.

“When I first saw Diana she looked tortured,” reports Ale.  “She had been colored on with marker, given eyeballs with pen.  It looks as though at one point her head had fallen off and was glued back on.”

Following the initial sanding, Ale will soak the bust in water to open its pores in preparation for the final steps, patching large cracks with new plaster and giving the work a final sanding to make the repairs flush with the rest of the piece.

Having worked extensively in bronze, wax, steel and clay, this is the first time Ale has worked with plaster and she is really enjoying it: “I feel that I am forming a real connection with the piece.  It is very exciting at this point to see her becoming beautiful again.”

Once completed, Diana will make a triumphant return to Magill Library where she will be offered pride of place in Haverford Special Collections.

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Need to find a book review?  You're in luck!  The Tri-College Libraries offer a multitude of resources to help you find what you need.

Consult this page: Finding Book Reviews.  It provides links to databases like Book Review Index, Book Review Digest, and the Times Literary Supplement, as well as instructions for using full-text resources and subject-specific tools that offer power tools for honing in on book review articles.

And when all else fails... ask a Reference Librarian! 

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Last week we posted about the re-discovery and ensuing restoration of two 150-year-old Greek plaster-cast busts that had once graced the shelves of the Haverford College Library.  Through careful examination of photographs from the College Archives library staff have identified a total of eleven busts that were once on display in the library from at least 1865 to 1895 and perhaps beyond.  As we would be pleased to see the identification and return of more of these wayward characters, we provide below—in the form of an old FBI wanted poster—a line-up of this motley gang of Ancient Greeks, Quakers, and a few unknowns.  If you’ve seen any of these fugitives lurking around campus please don’t hesitate to be in touch with Special Collections staff!

1. Apollo Wanted for employing biological weapons in the Trojan War. Also for defiling numerous nymphs. 2. Aristotle Wanted for not holding the Gods in honor. And for inspiring Friedrich Nietzsche centuries later. 3. Athena Wanted for aiding Hermes in the beheading of the Gorgon Medussa. May be armed with a thunderbolt and aegis. 4. Cicero Wanted for teaching Greek Philosophy to the Romans. And for Betraying the Regime of Mark Antony. 5. Diana Wanted for transforming Acteon into a stag and for turning his own hunting dogs on him. 6. Fothergill Wanted for urging revolution and liberal polices in the American Colonies. 7. Socrates Wanted for corrupting the minds of Athens’ youth, a crime punishable by death by hemlock. 8. Unknown Do you recognize this man? If you can identify him please contact Haverford Special Collections! 9. Whittier Wanted for doing little else besides dreaming and writing poetry for good causes. 10. Unknown Minor Accomplices

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• Monday through Thursday: 8 am - 2 am
• Friday: 8 am - 11 pm
• Saturday: 10 am - 8 pm
• Sunday: 10 am - 2 am

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When the organizers of “A Few Well Selected Books,” the current exhibition in Magill Library, chose an 1865 photograph of the library to use in the promotion of the exhibit, they had no idea it would lead to the rediscovery of two very old plaster-cast Greek busts.  This iconic photograph of the library in Alumni Hall features (from left to right) professors Thomas Chase and Paul Swift, superintendent William Wetherald, seniors James A. Chase and Allen C. Thomas, assistant professor and librarian Clement L. Smith, sophomore Samuel Collins, and president Samuel J. Gummere.  Peering down from high atop the wooden bookcases are several Ancient Greek busts, including (from left to right) Socrates, Aristotle, Diana, and Cicero.

After our exhibit announcements went out, we were informed by Haverford professor Darin Hayton that the bust of Diana could be found in the faculty lounge of Hall Building.  Scuffed up, embellished with magic marker, and appearing to have suffered a neck fracture, Diana has clearly been through some rough patches over the past century and a half!

A few weeks after the discovery of Diana, as librarians Christa Williford and David Conners were preparing to record an exhibit narrative with Classics professors Deborah Roberts and Bret Mulligan, Roberts revealed that she and husband professor emeritus Aryeh Kosman had another of the busts—that of Aristotle—in their home on College Avenue.  Kosman reports having rescued Aristotle from a trash pile in the 1970s.

Archival photographs from 1865 to 1895 reveal an array of Ancient Greek mythological and philosophical characters to have been part of the collection, as well as a couple of Quaker luminaries and some mystery busts yet to be identified.  Librarians have long wondered what had become of these venerable figures as they are not part of the extensive online inventory of college-owned art maintained by College Archivist Diana Franzusoff Peterson.

Both busts have been returned to Special Collections and now they will be undergoing restoration and repair courtesy of Haverford sculpture professor Marianne Weil and her teaching assistant Whitney Ale BMC '08.  Over the course of the next few weeks, we will provide updates on their progress and will also report on more of the missing busts which have been identified in photographs from the College Archives.

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The Lost-Wax Initiative, is a collaborative project between Swarthmore College art history students and sculpture students from Haverford College. For a limited number of studio/foundry sessions, students from Associate Professor Patricia Reilly's Ancient Greek and Roman Art class met with sculpture students from Visiting Associate Professor Marianne Weil's class at Haverford's Foundry.  Under Prof. Weil’s guidance, students explored the lost-wax casting process through "hands-on" preparation of their wax sculptures, investment molds and the finishing “chasing” of the bronzes at our College Foundry.  

This project was a unique opportunity for students in both departments to share an in-depth collaborative research experience in a workshop setting and provides the premise for an ongoing dialogue between our departments.  It was generously funded by a Mellon Tri-Co Seed Grant.

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Well, here’s your chance to find out!

The Mellon Library Internship Program provides a unique (and best of all, paid!) opportunity for Swat students to learn about librarianship as a possible career choice. 

Come to an informal reception, this Monday, November 26 at 4:15 PM in the Popular Reading Room in McCabe, and hear from previous interns about their experiences.  Whether you just want to snack on free food or take a quick study break, come and learn about this great opportunity.   Then mark the November 30 application deadline on your calendar!

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...But the deadline (Friday, November 30th) is fast approaching, so now is the time to start getting your entry together. The A. Edward Newton Competition, the oldest student book collecting competition in the United States, awards cash prizes to the top three Swarthmore students who submit the best essays and annotated bibliographies of their book collections. The winners are also invited to display their collections in an exhibit in McCabe Library.

For information on how to enter, and for rules, prizes, and the history of the competition, please visit the Newton Competition home page. Don't miss out!

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Title: EndNote Web

Date: Monday, November 12, 2007, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Description: Find out what all the excitement is about. The new, easy-to-use EndNote Web makes formatting citations and managing bibliographies effortless! Learn to create your own 'libraries' in EndNote web and format them using Cite While You Write. 1000s of citation styles will be available to you with the press of a button.

Instructor: Meg Spencer, Science Librarian

Location: McCabe computer classroom

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Title: Halloween in the Rare Book Room

Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2007, 1:00-1:45 p.m.

Description: Sinister illustrations. Creepy artifacts. Disturbing artists' books. Dancing skeletons. Rare editions of classic eerie tales. Explore the scary side of McCabe's special collections, just in time for Halloween!

Instructors: Bronwen Densmore, Daisy Larios, and Amanda Watson, Reference and Instruction Interns

Location: Meet in the McCabe lobby at 1:00.

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Modern Musings: Treasures from the Lieberman Collection

McCabe Library lobby, October 24-December 23

Talk by Professor Graham Bader, Tuesday, October 30, 4:15 p.m. 

This exhibit, curated by Sarah Burford '08, showcases some of our favorite items from the Lieberman collection. This generous gift from William S. Lieberman '43, prominent curator at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, comprises thousands of volumes on art, history, literature, and a myriad of other subjects. Lieberman graduated Swarthmore in 1943 with a B.A. in English, and almost immediately embarked on a six-decade career in the art world. The exhibition includes books, catalogs, original prints, and lithographs created or signed by figures such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, W.H. Auden, and Andy Warhol. Lieberman knew many of these artists personally, and the exhibition offers an exciting look at works representative of some of the most important developments in modern artistic culture.

Please join us at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30th, for a talk on the exhibit by visiting Art History Professor Graham Bader. We hope to see you there!

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The Underhill Music and Dance Library located in Swarthmore's Lang Music Building has recently received a major renovation.  The Tri-College Library staffs are invited to join in the celebration of our beautiful space on Thursday October 25th beginning at 4:30 pm.    Please come enjoy great food, music, and dance!

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October 5, 2007 to January 31, 2008
Curated by Christa Williford
Sharpless Gallery
Magill Library, Haverford College

Haverford's first library catalog was a slender 40-page book printed just three years after the first students arrived in 1833. The 770 titles included in this nascent collection give clues to the kind of intellectual life the school's Quaker founders sought to encourage in these young men. In the years that followed, the collection has expanded under many other influences; faculty, alumni, community groups, other libraries, and, most especially, students have all played a role in building Haverford's collections. This exhibition tells the story of the first "few well-chosen books" and honors those who have been responsible for growing this corpus into today's wide-ranging collections.

http://www.haverford.edu/library/special/ 

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The Faculty Bibliography has been a Swarthmore tradition since 1975, and has long served to keep our community informed of faculty research and publication.  When the bibliography was first made available online, it offered the global community a picture of the intellectual life of the College and the scholarly accomplishments of our faculty for any given year.  Now, our goal is a comprehensive bibliography.

As such, the Library has developed a single database which will offer fuller view of the scholarship in which our community is engaged.  This bibliography will include traditional print publications, such as books and peer-reviewed articles, as well as conference presentations, art exhibitions, premiere musical performances, and the like.  It will celebrate works created by current and former faculty during their careers at Swarthmore, as well as those of the College staff.

Currently, Faculty Bibliography is a work in progress and does not provide a complete record of the achievements of our community.  To ensure that you are fully represented, we encourage you review your portion of the bibliography, and submit additional citations.

The Faculty Bibliography includes citations for:

• Monographs, textbooks, and other scholarly books
• Book chapters and contributions to reference works
• Articles, book reviews and other substantive pieces from journals, newspapers, and magazines
• Novels, short stories, poems, and other published creative works of fiction
• Books and journals where the faculty member is credited as an editor
• Presentations at academic conferences and to local, regional, and national organizations
• Works published in conference proceedings
• White papers
• Scholarly websites
• Technical reports
• Software
• Published, televised or radio interviews
• Creative works where the community member is credited as the artist, composer, choreographer, playwright, director, or screenwriter
• Art exhibitions and the first print publication of drawings, illustrations, and photographs
• Premiere performances of dance, musical works, or theater productions

The following are not included:

• Publications which are forthcoming, in press, submitted, or accepted
• Works created prior to or after one's career at the College

The Library welcomes any questions or thoughts you may have, and looks forward to developing this resource with our community.  If you have questions or comments on the Faculty Bibliography, please Contact Kate Carter, Digital Initiatives Coordinator, at kcarter2 or ext. 8485.

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Check out MideastWire.com!  This resource provides English translations to news stories from 22 Arab countries, Iran, and the Arab media Diaspora, updated daily. 

See this review from the Guardian (UK) to learn more about this resource, and to compare it with other sources of news from this region of the world.

You can view the news stories on the website, search the archives (back to 2005), receive updates via your RSS reader, or sign up for daily email newsletters.  To sign up for the email newsletter, write to info@mideastwire.com from your BMC, HC, or SC email account.

MideastWire.com is brought to you by the Tri-College Libraries. 

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Title: Using EndNoteWeb

Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 12:30-1:15 p.m.

Description: The makers of EndNote, the popular citation-management tool, have come out with a new version: EndNoteWeb. Learn how to use this resource in a workshop with our resident EndNote experts.

Instructors: Pam Harris, Outreach & Instruction Librarian, and Meg Spencer, Science Librarian

Location: McCabe computer classroom

To register, RSVP to Amanda Watson at awatson1. We hope to see you there!

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Last week, we told you ten things you (probably) didn't know you could do with Tripod, but there's actually more!*  We have gadgets and widgets! 

Find your favorite and click the image to install!

iGoogle or Google Desktop	Vista
Mac OS X Dashboard

* We just didn't want to overwhelm you with all of Tripod's awesomeness.

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Swarthmore alum and new Digital Collections Librarian at Haverford College, David Conners, has recently had an article published in Library Journal.  Co-written with Laena McCarthy, Image Cataloger and Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute Libraries, the article "Can The Jobs Be Found," reconsiders the common presumption that entry-level jobs for recent library school graduates are hard to find.  Congratulations, David!

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Fall is here, and students and faculty are returning (or arriving for the first time). For everyone who's new to Tripod, the libraries' catalog, and for everyone who's used it but hasn't tried all the bells and whistles, here's a short guide to some of the features you may not know about.

« Continue reading "Top 10 things you (probably) didn't know you could do with Tripod" »

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 Free to Dance

A video series on the history of African American dance, with emphasis on the role that African American choreographers and dancers have played in the development of modern dance.

Part One focuses "on the early development of modern dance-and set against the background of the Harlem Renaissance, racial segregation and the Great Depression ... examining how African Americans overcame a 'segregated aesthetic' to become recognized as modern dance artists."

Part Two features Katherine Dunham, whose "priority is to create new choreography with her dancers."

Part Three examines the 1960s through the 1980s.

Watch an excerpt from Bill T. Jones' "D-Man in the Water."

Read more... 

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The editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries recently published a list of the 100 words high school graduates should know.  The list includes words like moiety, abrogate, circumlocution, precipitous, and sanguine.  According to Steven Kleinedler, if you know these words you likely have a "superior command of the language." How many do you know?

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Nominations for the 28th Annual Emmy Awards for News & Documentary were announced this past week.

Check out some of these nominated documentaries owned by the Tri-Co libraries on dvd!


THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Eugene O'Neill

CINEMAX

God Sleeps in Rwanda

 
COURT TV

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

DISCOVERY CHANNEL

Grizzly Man 

DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire

The Lost Year in Iraq

 
P.O.V.

My Country, My Country

The Boys of Baraka

The Fall of Fujimori

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Studies show that many library fans are also enthusiastic book-buyers. 

If you want to get more books but don't have a lot of cash, or if you have books you've read that you don't want to keep, how about participating in a book exchange?  There are several websites that let you post the books you want to swap and search for the books you want to get.  Give these a try!

• PaperBackSwap
• BookMooch
• FrugalReader

Keep an eye on this site for future book-related tips! 

 
Disclaimer: the Tri-College Libraries are not affiliated with any of these sites.  Check them out and tell us how it goes! 

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The Trico libraries are testing out several online resources, and we need your opinion!  Please check out the list, try any that strike your interest, and submit your comments.  Your feedback is invaluable as we decide whether to subscribe to these resources.

The trial databases include:

• A new interface for RILM, GeoRef, and the Bibliography of the History of Art
• Encyclopedia Judaica, a new online reference book
• Zentralblatt MATH, the most complete indexing resource for pure and applied math (going back to 1868!)
  
• Mideastwire.com, which provides English translations of the latest news articles from the 22 Arab countries, Iran, and the Arab diaspora
  

Access these resources at the Trial Databases page.  Thanks for your help!  And act fast: most trials end in early July.

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New!  The Tri-College Libraries have all begun subscriptions to America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922!

 
This amazing resource allows you to search the full text of more than 1000 historical newspaper titles with coverage from all fifty states.   

 
Want to find advertisements, birth notices, election returns, or prices from Kentucky during the Gilded Age?  You can!  Limit your search by region, year, presidential era, eras in American history, newspaper title, article type, or a combination of these.

 
You can zoom in on your resulting articles, navigate the whole page, and output your results to the printer or to a PDF. 

 
Try America's Historical Newspapers today! 

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Going away for the holiday weekend, or planning a vacation?  Here are some sites you won't want to miss:

• Google Maps - great for getting driving directions, finding resources near your destination, or zooming in on an aerial view of any spot in America!  Try the "hybrid" view to see the map and aerial photograph in a combined image.
  
• Tripadvisor.com - Look here for hotel prices, and thousands of reviews by other travelers.
• LonelyPlanet's Postcards - tips and advice from intrepid wayfarers like yourself!

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Underhill Library will be closing for renovations from May 26th until September 2nd. If there are materials that you anticipate needing, you'll want to check them out before closing time on Friday May 25th.  Also, if you should discover that you need something during the summer please do not hesitate to ask for it.  Materials from Bryn Mawr and Haverford can be sent to McCabe Library for pick up and we can take advantage of our Interlibrary Loan Services.  For more information contact Donna Fournier, Performing Arts Librarian or call 610-328-8231.  Come see the new look in the Fall!

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Swarthmore people - Maybe you didn't want to give away your favoite spots in the libraries two weeks ago?  Maybe you didn't want to even think about research last week?  Here's another chance to share your thoughts!

Background: Each week for the rest of the semester we'll be posting a different question here and in the suggestion book.  Leave us a comment or a note!   We'll put the question in The Toilet Papers, too, but please don't respond there, 'cause that's gross.

Question Number Three:

Thanks for your input!

 
You can still answer our first question!  Or even our second one!

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Title: Paper and Papermaking

Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2007, 1:00-1:45 p.m.

Description: Learn about the history of paper and the art of papermaking through books from McCabe's Rare Book Room. This hands-on workshop will include examples ranging from papyrus to parchment to modern-day paper arts.

Instructors: Pam Harris, Instruction and Outreach Librarian; Amanda Watson, Reference and Instruction Intern; and Sarah Burford, Mellon Library Intern

Location: McCabe Library 3rd floor lounge

You can register using the online form at http://www.swarthmore.edu/x9018.xml, or e-mail Amanda Watson (awatson1). Drop-ins are also welcome!

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Check out the Electronic Literature Collection - Volume 1 which was written up in the DigaLit column of this Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer. Both funky & creative, it's an interesting example of what is now being called 'digital literature.'

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Swarthmore people - Maybe you didn't want to give away your favoite spots in the libraries last week?  Here's another chance to share your thoughts!

Background: Each week for the rest of the semester we'll be posting a different question here and in the suggestion book.  Leave us a comment or a note!   We'll put the question in The Toilet Papers, too, but please don't respond there, 'cause that's gross.

Question Number Two:

Thanks for your input!

 
You can still answer last week's question!  We really just want to make more spots like your favorite one!  Promise! 

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Bestselling author Neil Gaiman, whose celebrated Sandman series of graphic novels is widely considered a groundbreaker in introducing comic books to a literary audience, will read at Bryn Mawr on Tuesday, April 24, at 7 p.m., in Thomas Great Hall.

Check out Gaiman's works in Tripod. 

Read more about Gaiman in Literature Resource Center. 

Visit Gaiman's personal webpage. 

Listen to interviews with Gaiman via Squidoo. 

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Title: Blogging for beginners

Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2007, 1:00-1:45 p.m.

Description: Do you read blogs? Want to start one yourself? Just curious about what a blog is and why people keep talking about them? Want to do more with your existing blog? Come to this workshop and find out!

Instructors: Amanda Watson, Reference and Instruction Intern

Location: McCabe Library computer classroom 

Register online at http://www.swarthmore.edu/x9019.xml or e-mail Amanda Watson (awatson1).

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Swarthmore students, faculty and staff!  Did you not have chance to come to one of our focus groups last month?  It's cool - the Library still wants to hear your thoughts! 

 
Each week for the rest of the semester we'll be posting a different question here and in the suggestion book.  Leave us a comment or a note!   We'll put the question in The Toilet Papers too, but please don't respond there, 'cause that's gross.

First question:

Which campus libraries do you visit?  What do you do in each?  Where's the best place in the library to do that?  Tell us everything!

Okay, that was three questions, but only because we hate run on sentences.

Thanks for your input! 

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Please join us for a lecture by Steven Rothman, noted Christopher Morley scholar and curator of the current exhibition in the Philips Wing, on Morley and his life-long relationship with Haverford College. Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 4:30 pm in the Philips Wing of Magill Library, Haverford College. Refreshments will be served.

Christopher Morley (1890-1957) was a prolific and popular novelist, editor, playwright, poet, essayist, and book lover. But more than anything, Morley was a devoted Haverfordian, who grew up on the campus (his father was a beloved mathematics professor), graduated from the college in 1910, and returned as a successful writer to give lectures and visit brother Felix, who became Haverford’s fifth president. On the fiftieth anniversary of Christopher Morley’s death we honor this “local boy made good” and his lifelong commitment to Haverford College.

For more information on our exhibition and events:
http://www.haverford.edu/library/special/

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As a part of the two weeks of environmental events leading up to the "Saving Communities, Saving the Environment" conference at Haverford during Earth Day weekend, there is an exhibit of rare and valuable environmental books in the Special Collections.  This exhibit has been developed by Lesley Fleischman, in conjunction with Earthquakers (Haverford's environmental group) and with help from Ann Upton.

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Many Swarthmore students have told us they want more and better e-books.  We have obliged!  Swarthmore College Library has just purchased an experimental subscription to Ebrary, a leading e-book aggregator.  Please let us know how you like this resource by commenting here or in the comment book!

The Ebrary collection, with about 30,000 e-books, offers some unique features.  Some of them reequire you to create a user account:

• Highlight text in multiple colors.
• Type notes inside an e-book.
• Keep a Personal Bookshelf with links to your highlights, notes, and bookmarks.

Other useful features do not depend on a user account:

• InfoTools™ software lets you click on any word to get additional online information.  Define, locate, translate, search document, search Tripod, and more.
• Automatic citations every time you paste or print Ebrary content.
  
• Multiple search options.
• Stable links that integrate with Blackboard.
  

Each Ebrary e-book has a record in Tripod, so you will come across them in your regular Tripod searches.  If you are researching from your personal computer and would like to use an Ebrary e-book, you will need to perform a quick, one-time download of their Reader software (this software is already installed on all public area machines). Bryn Mawr and Haverford students, we invite you to visit one of our libraries if you would like to use an Ebrary e-book.

For more information on e-books at Swarthmore, including Ebrary, please see the e-books tip sheets.

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You're invited to a special workshop for Swarthmore Family Day! 

Title: Quakers, Swarthmore, and the Underground Railroad

Date: Friday, April 13, 2007, 3:00-4:00 p.m.

Description: Find out the hidden stories of Swarthmore Presidents Edward Parrish and Edward Magill, Dean Elizabeth Powell Bond and their connections with the Underground Railroad. This workshop will be illustrated by 19th century papers and documents from the collections of Friends Historical Library.

Instructor: Christopher Densmore, Curator of the Friends Historical Library

Location: McCabe Library Computer Classroom

Register online at http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11028.xml or e-mail Amanda Watson (awatson1).

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