RefWorks Workshops

Those of you who have been in our recent FYS library instruction classes have witnessed the wonder that is RefWorks. This nifty online tool will collect, store, and organize your citations. It will also create bibliographies for you, which is a pretty awesome feature.

We continue to offer weekly RefWorks workshops on Mondays at 2pm in the E2 classroom on the lower level of the library. However, on Monday, October 2, we will be meeting in the reference office instead of E2. The reference office is located behind the circulation desk on the main level of the library.

If you aren't able to come to the weekly Monday workshops but would still like to learn more about RefWorks, you can request a reference consultation, and a librarian will be happy to assist you.

Please don't write in library books.

Remember the very first lessons you ever learned about how to be a responsible member of the human community? Don't litter, share, and don't write in library books. We've been noticing a rash of violations of the latter, so feel compelled to remind you: Please don't write in library books! While the books are 'yours,' in the sense that they are here to make your intellectual curiosity and growth possible, they are really 'ours.' All of ours! When you write in--or spill food on, or rip pages out of--books, you make them unavailable to other Sarah Lawrence students, faculty, and staff. Please treat library materials with respect--nobody likes using a dirty book with someone else's conclusions written all over it. Not even you, we bet.

Thank you from the library!

Try a research consultation.

As your annotated bibliographies come due, the library would like to remind you to take advantage of our research consultation services. Fill out our online form and a reference librarian will set up a time to meet with you one-on-one to talk about searching and sourcing for your specific project. Let us help you navigate this confusing universe of book catalogs, databases, Google and Google Scholar, RefWorks, and more!

Celebrate Banned Books!

September 23 through 30 is Banned Books Week, honoring our freedom to read. Celebrate freedom of inquiry by reading an oft-challenged title like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Bluest Eye, or Brave New World. For more information about Banned Books Week, check out the American Library Association's resources.

Did You Know...From the Archives!

In the 1940s, the land that is now Andrews Parking Lot was known as the “picnic grounds.” During World War II, in Spring 1943, the area was plowed and set up as a victory garden for planting lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cabbage. Faculty, students and Bronxville residents maintained the garden for the remainder of the war.

This clipping, from an unidentified newspaper, shows students working in the Sarah Lawrence victory garden.

In case you are wondering what a victory garden is, here’s a brief definition.

During both World War I and II, the federal government instituted food rationing nationwide to allow agricultural production to be directed toward the troops abroad. To supplement the shortage of food, in particular vegetables, millions of civilians across the country, especially in urban areas, created victory gardens, growing their own vegetables. The work of victory gardens not only increased the food supply, but was also seen as a morale booster for civilians.

For more information on victory gardens, check out these links:

Living History Farm in Nebraska

Smithsonian Institution

For more information on Sarah Lawrence College during World War II, visit the SLC Archives!

RefWorks one-on-one

Can't make one of our Monday afternoon RefWorks training sessions? (Every Monday 2-3, in the library!) Sign up for a one-on-one tutorial! Fill out our research consultation form and a reference librarian will meet with you to talk about how to make RefWorks work for you.

Celebrate the Constitution.

We hope you'll all come by the library to see our display of images of the original Constitution, located in the library's gallery space. As the Senate moves toward abolishing the writ of habeas corpus and the USA PATRIOT Act attacks our right to free speech, understanding the Constitution has become more crucial than ever. So come by and spend a few minutes meditating on this document, and leave us your thoughts in the community notebook. We'll post selections from the notebook in future blog entries!

The moving shelves are fixed!

If you needed a book from the Q through Zs over the weekend but found yourself stymied by the broken shelves, please come back! The technician fixed the shelves this morning, and they're moving quite smoothly.

Brooklyn Book Festival

If your weekend plans take you to the city, you might stop by the Brooklyn Book Festival. This first annual festival is packed with readings, performances, discussion panels and other events celebrating the work of Brooklyn authors including Jonathan Lethem, Jhumpa Lahiri, Eileen Myles, Gary Shteyngart, and Myla Goldberg, among many others.

Have a wonderful weekend, from the library!

Library skill of the day

As annotated bibliographies begin to be assigned and the first class papers begin to come due, you may find yourself in need of journal articles when you have only the citation in hand. Never fear! Here is our step-by-step guide to finding articles in the SLC library:

1. Find the name of the journal the article is in; often, databases will call this the source or publication.

2. Open the Sarah Lawrence College Library catalog.

3. Run a Journal Title (exact) search for the name of the journal, NOT the title of the article.

4. Find the link to the journal in the results list, click to see the record for the journal and read it carefully to make sure we have the dates that you need.

OR

5. Write down the call number and find it on the shelves.

6. If the journal is not listed in the catalog, check our list of online journals.

7. If you get no hits, submit an interlibrary loan request.

Still confused? Pop back and ask me, Carl, or Maria, to walk you through the process, or fill out our consultation request form. Happy researching!

RefWorks Workshops Work Wonders!

Do you need a quick and easy way of saving and organizing your database search results? Do you need to create a bibliography for your paper but can't recall how to do perfect MLA, APA, or Chicago style? Then you need RefWorks, which can do all of the above and more!

RefWorks is bibliographic management software that helps you collect, store, manage, and share your research citations. We think it is a really helpful research tool, and we want to help you make the most of it. Beginning Monday, September 18, the reference group (Emily, Carl, and I) will be holding weekly workshop sessions on how to use RefWorks. We will meet every Monday from 2 to 3 PM in the E2 classroom in the lower level of the library. If you want some assistance learning how to use RefWorks, please stop by and see us!

Job Openings

Thanks to all of you that turned in applications for library positions. Right now the library is fully staffed, but please stop in at anytime to inquire about future job openings.

Thanks.

Judson

Regular library hours begin

This Monday sees, among other things, the start of regular library hours for the fall semester. They are:

Monday - Thursday: 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Friday: 8:30 a.m. - midnight
Saturday: 11:00 a.m. - midnight
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.

Google News Archive Search

Google has a new mechanism that lets you search both historical and contemporary newspapers. The search feature sorts your search results into a timeline, so you can access articles from the 1990s or the 1890s from one screen. We've only just started playing around with this tool, but it's already knocking our socks off. Check out Google News Archive Search. This is a very interesting new tool.

But it doesn't make the library irrelevant! To get the full text, you'll often be asked to pay a per-view charge. The library has access to many historical newspapers electronically or on microfilm, and if not, we can always get you articles via interlibrary loan. Never pay for information without checking with the library first. Questions? Call us at x2225.

Get excited: WDI Online

The Library has recently acquired a new database, World Development Indicators Online, from the World Bank. This database gives SLC community members access to more than 600 development indicators, with time series for 208 countries and 18 country groups from 1960 to 2005. Access the database from the library web page, or directly from this link: http://devdata.worldbank.org/dataonline/.

Need help navigating WDI Online? Set up an appointment with a reference librarian by filling out this form.

Where are the baskets?

If your professor sends you to the library looking for 'baskets' or 'photocopies,' here's where to look. Baskets are located on the shelves to the right of the circulation desk, and the baskets are arranged alphabetically by professor's last name. Don't see a basket? Ask at the reference/info desk. We're still in the process of making baskets for courses, and you might just have to check back later in the week.

Where are the Q through Z books?

In order to make more room for literature, we moved the Q through Z collection downstairs to the moving shelves, but we haven't yet installed new maps. Subject areas you can expect to find on the lower level of the library include science and technology, mathematics, medicine, photography, and theoretical and practical works in the field of library science. (You're not the only one who falls asleep in the library--sometimes we sometimes we even give ourselves the Z's! Hee hee!)

If you have trouble finding your way through the stacks, please ask us for help.