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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If you want to see your calendar immediately, when you first open webmail, here’s a link that works https://zmailbox.brynmawr.edu/zimbra/?app=calendar

I find this very useful when I want to check a date or schedule without getting distracted by my inbox.

Not exactly a Library tip, but handy.

Mark

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At the reference desk today I was asked for background on modern day piracy.  This question helped me re-discover Columbia International Affairs Online [CIAO] one of my favorite too-often-overlooked resources.  Sponsored by Columbia University Press, CIAO has great content - authoritative, extensively researched and in-depth - on all kinds of topics.

If you're curious, try searching your topic du jour.  Advanced search lets you limit results to the previous year or two.  The site is kinda clunky, but the results are amazingly rich and varied.  Here's a search on North Korea's nuclear program, to give you an idea.  Note the range of ideological perspectives.

Watch out though, some of these files are huge pdfs, so may be slow to download and slow/wasteful to print. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

 Mark

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Going home for Thanksgiving, or to Paris for the holidays?  You can still search the Historical New York Times or ProQuest Research Library online!

If you have a valid BMC email account, you can access any of the thousands of online journals and databases the library subscribes to, from anywhere in the world via the library's EZ-Proxy service. Go to the BMC Library home page and click "off campus access" under the Services menu.  After logging in, you'll be brought to the library's front page, from which you can navigate to the resources you need.

Please contact the BMC Help Desk with any login or technical problems at 610-526-7440 or help [at] brynmawr [dot] edu.

If you need help using library resources, please contact a reference librarian at 610-526-5279 or library [at] brynmawr [dot] edu.

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Working on your final papers?  Need help with finding the proper citation format for a source?  The library can help!

• Check out our guide page for citations and style guides -- we provide links for APA, MLA, Chicago, and more!

• Try the Citation Builder -- a great quick tool from the NCSU libraries
  

• We have print copies of all of the major citation guides behind the Reference Desk in Canaday -- just ask! 

• If you need help creating or interpreting a citation, ask the Reference Librarian for a second opinion!  We're here to help.

Good luck!

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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 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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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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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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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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• Working on a group project?  Google Docs lets you collaborate easily. 
  
• Want to IM from a public area machine?  Check out Meebo, and chat using your AIM, MSN, Yahoo Messenger or Gtalk account right in the browser. 
  
• Need to put together a PowerPoint but don't have the software and don't feel like trudging through the snow to get to a computer that does?  Download Zoho Show to create and edit your PowerPoint presentation.
• Need to buy books for next semester?  Remember Book Finder, which lets you compare prices from 4,000 book sellers. 

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New!

You can now search Tripod directly from the search box on your Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 menu bar.

We've created an easy-to-install search plugin that will assist you. 

Try it today!

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Check out the latest tool from Google: Google Patent Search! 

Now you can search the full text of over 7 million patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from Google's user-friendly interface (much nicer than the Patent Office's own search engine!).  Retrieve the full text in a very readable format including zoomable text and images! 

Read Google's blog entry on this new service, or just search for a patent!

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Are you a faculty member? A thesis writer? A graduate student? Would you like to receive notifications whenever new articles are published in your area of interest? Find out how -- it's easy!

Your Tri-College librarians have created a website with links and instructions for setting up "alerts" for databases in all disciplinary areas.

Visit the reference desk of your local Tri-Co library for more information and personal assistance setting up alerts.

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Shakespeare Searched is a search engine for (you guessed it) Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. You can use it to see how many times a word shows up in all of Shakespeare's works, or in a single play, or in the speeches of a single character.

But what really sets it apart is the "clustering" feature, which sorts your search results by finding groups of words that occur together more than once. Do a search for "music," for instance, and you'll find that the word most closely associated with it in Shakespeare's plays is "love," and the play with the most references to music is King Lear (click the "Works" tab to see your results by play). Try it out the next time you're working on an assignment on Shakespeare!

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No matter where you are this summer, Swarthmore students, faculty and staff can easily access the library's extensive database resources.  Just login to EZ-Proxy using your Swatmail username and password before you search databases and we'll know you're a Swattie.  To get to EZ-Proxy, follow the Off-Campus Access link in Tripod or go to: https://proxy.swarthmore.edu/login   Once you're logged in, you can access any of our subscription databases such as Lexis-Nexis, Access World News, Proquest Research Library, and much more.  Questions or problems?  Contact the library at 610-328-8477 and ask to speak with a Reference Librarian, or email librarian@swarthmore.edu.

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Many people already know about Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia written and edited by its readers.  But did you know that Wikipedia has an excellent section on citation styles?  

Wikipedia's concise, easy to use pages give information about citation styles and formatting for ACS,  APA, Bluebook, Chicago, MLA, and more.  It also gives you references to other published style guides and links to free online tools for creating your bibliographies.

Check out Wikipedia's Citations page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citations and let us know what you think! 

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"Haven't I seen that DVD before?"  "What was the name of that book about monkeys I took out last semester?"  Has this ever happened to you?  We have the answer!

Announcing a cool new Tripod feature: your Reading History!  If you choose to activate this service, Tripod will automatically keep a running list of all the books, videos, music, etc. that you borrow from the libraries, even after you return them. 

You can easily remove individual items from the list, or clear the whole list with a few clicks -- just check the boxes and click "Delete Marked." 

To access this feature, click Login at the top of the Tripod screen.   After logging in, click the "reading history" button, and then "opt in."  Everything you check out from that point on will go on the list.  Then, any time you log in in the future, you can check out the list.  As always, you can click Items Currently Checked Out to view and renew the things you've borrowed.

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Did you know that you can ask us questions using AIM or Yahoo IM? Our screen name is swatlibrary - add us to your buddy list. We generally answer questions when we're at the reference desk, so you won't have much luck getting help on your last-minute research at 3 a.m. But if we're here, we'll answer!

swatlibrary - just add us!

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Do you use an instant messaging service like Yahoo IM or AIM? If so, add Swarthmore's Reference Librarians to your buddy list!

AIM: swatlibrary
Yahoo IM: swatlibrary

Ask us questions when you're in your dorm room and don't want to hike over to McCabe or Cornell. Ask us questions when you've found the perfect computer in the building and don't want to risk leaving it for someone else to use. Ask us questions whenever you're online. We're usually online whenever someone is sitting at the reference desk - roughly 10 am to 10 pm during the week and shorter hours on the weekends.

For more help, head to our Ask a Librarian web page.

If you do not have an IM client installed on your computer, try one of these web-based services:

AIM Express
Yahoo IM on the Web
Meebo: Allows you to connect to 4 IM services at once, including AIM and Yahoo.

Did you know you can browse our video collection in Tripod by country or genre? Genres include Adventure, Animated, Gay and Lesbian, Romance, Documentary, Science Fiction and more.

Just look for the drop-down boxes on the Video/DVD tab in Tripod to start exploring.

From there, you can also link to our New Videos and More Video Resources to see what we've bought recently and explore film and video resources.

Need to find info fast? Try xreferplus, a one-stop source for online reference books in a wide array of subject fields.

Dictionaries in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, German, and Italian! The Collins World Atlas Gazeteer! The Great American History Fact-Finder! Barron's New Food Lover's Companion! Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary! Quotation guides, religious texts, and even a crossword puzzle solver... these are some of the 177 tools available through xreferplus.

Give xreferplus a whirl. You'll be glad you did.

Did you know that you can get tables of contents and search results from ProQuest Research Library delivered to your inbox on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis?

Simply browse to the Publications tab, find your journal, and click the yellow "Set up alert" button at the top of the journal's page.

You can also save your favorite searches and have "alerting" emails sent when new articles are published on your topic. Just click the yellow "Set up alert" button at the top of your search results screen.

ProQuest Research Library offers citations and full-text articles from thousands of academic and popular journals on all subjects, from 1971 through today.

New! If you use the Mozilla Firefox web browser, you can now search Tripod directly from the search box on your Firefox menu bar.

We've created an easy-to-install search plugin that will assist you. Try it today!

The Bryn Mawr College Libraries have new hours for the summer! Read all about them on our Hours page.

Also: Saturday reference help at Canaday!! Thanks to a Mellon grant, a reference librarian will be available at Canaday Library on Saturdays (May 21, May 28, and June 4) and a Sunday (June 12) during the first summer school session. Reference hours will be 1:00 - 5:00 PM. Please come see us!

Weekend reference hours for later in the summer will be announced soon.

If the Tri-Colleges do not own a book you need, or if all of our copies are unavailable, then you can search for it in a number of regional academic library catalogs and request it yourself.

Click on in Tripod.

The barcode number on your ID card is your "patron ID" to access E-ZBorrow. Once you have searched the database and found the book you need, click on the blue "Request" button and follow the E-ZBorrow instructions. Circulation and reference staff are available to help with this process.

Most E-ZBorrow books are delivered within 3-5 days. When your books are available for pickup, the library will send you an email message. E-ZBorrow books circulate for 28 days. You may renew books yourself through Tripod and should return E-ZBorrow books at the library from which you received them.

For books not available in E-ZBorrow, use our Interlibrary Loan service. Please note that journal articles are not available through E-ZBorrow.

Questions?

Did you know that most library items can be renewed online? That�s right! You don�t even have to leave the comfort of your room.

In Tripod, click Login. Enter your name and 14-digit library barcode number.

Now click on the link, �Items you have checked out�. You have the option to renew all or selected items. If an item can not be renewed, you will get a message in RED indicating why not.

Tip: If you have lots of items checked out, use the �Sort by Due Date� button. That will bring the current due items to the top.