College Symposium to be held in the Pillow Room

This year, the College is inaugurating a new symposium designed to bring together faculty and students for informal discussion of a subject of common interest.

The first symposium will be held on Tuesday, October 16th from 1:30 to 3:00 in the Library's Pillow Room. The theme of the first symposium will be "John Dewey and the Educational Philosophy of Sarah Lawrence College." A chapter from Dewey's Democracy and Education will the starting point of the discussons. Four panelists--Barbara Schecter from Psychology, Ilja Wachs from Literature, Ray Clarke from Biology and Rose Ann Thom from Dance--will speak briefly about Dewey's text and their teaching experience to get the discussion started.

You may access the chapter in MySLC here.

Check out our multilingual library records!

Technical services is at it again, enhancing Voyager, our online catalog, with foreign language titles, authors, and subject headings. For example, try searching for a video titled 'Battle Royale,' a Japanese action thriller. You will see the English titles, romanization of the Japanese, and the Japanese and Chinese characters. You can even search using characters. Foreign language students and native speakers, give it a try and let us know how it works!

JSTOR now links to ARTStor!

Now, when you are searching for articles in JSTOR, you can link directly to images in ARTStor. This great new feature will promote cross-disciplinary study and enhance your article searches with cross-indexed visual material.

Happy searching!

Lecture tonight! Critical Reflections: Activist Notes from the SLC Archives

Critical Reflections: Activist Notes from the SLC Archives

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm

Join the College Archivist, Abby Lester, for a multimedia presentation on SLC activism. Learn how previous students brought about change on campus and in the surrounding communities. The presentation will include photos and video of protests from the College Archives. Hear about the Westlands sit-ins, campus employee wage protests, and SLC’s participation in the National Student Strike of 1970. Sponsored by The College Archives, Office of Community Partnerships, and the Office of Racial/Ethnic Diversity and Campus Engagement.

See what Gale's Contemporary Authors Database can do for you!

Are you interested in researching a specific author, or just want to find out who wrote that great book you read over summer? Try the Contemporary Authors database.

Contemporary Authors offers authoritative biographies on over 124,00 current authors in a wide variety of fields, from fiction to broadcast journalism. It is even better than a Google search because of its clarity and transparency. Certain authors (intentionally or not) tend to fudge on certain details of their lives - for example, try researching the facts of J.T. Leroy's life and work or Kathryn Harrison's memoir, The Kiss. Biographies that cannot be confirmed with the authors are indicated as such, as is the date of the entry.

Contemporary Authors offers a summary of criticism, both positive and negative, about specific works and authors, and makes an ideal jumping-off point for many research projects. And if you get stuck doing research, make an appointment for a consultation with a Reference Librarian using the form located here - we are here to help!

Email us from EBSCOhost!

Research questions come up when we're in the middle of doing research, and EBSCOhost has devised a quick way for you to ask us for help mid-search session. Just look at the upper right hand corner of any EBSCOhost database search screen (these include biggies like Academic Search Premiere and more tightly focused collections like the Gender Studies Database and ATLA), and you'll see a link to "Ask a Librarian!" Click that, give us your name, contact information, and a summary of what tripped you up, and hit send. The database will automatically email the reference staff your question along with a copy of your search string, and one of us will get back to you with strategies for extricating yourself from a research jam.

Searching other databases, or just want general help? Give us a call with questions at x2225, email us at reference@slc.edu, or just stop by our office behind the circulation desk on the main floor of the library.

New Fiction Highlights

In addition to our featured New Poetry section, the library now has a New Fiction display near the entrance.

If you have some free time and are looking for fiction, stop by and see if some of our new acquisitions appeals to you. If nothing does, you can also suggest a book for purchase using the form under Quick Links.

What would you recommend for our new fiction shelf?

Problem with emailed search results

We have discovered that the online catalog is not emailing your search results when requested, even though you get a message that states that they were emailed successfully. Our system vendor is aware of the problem and we will post a message to this blog when this function is restored.

Meanwhile, you can get a list of your results by using the 'print' function and pasting the resulting text into a word processing document or email. Of course, you can also take down call numbers the old fashioned way--with paper and pencil.

Getting used to 360 Link

You'll notice something new in your database results page this semester, and it looks like this:

This summer, we installed a new software that connects our abstract and citation databases (like Sociological Abstracts and America: History and Life) to our full-text content (in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and elsewhere). When you find a citation or abstract that looks interesting, simply click the image. 360 Link will then search across our databases and give you links to the full-text, wherever it resides. Pretty spiffy, no?

Like any piece of software, 360 Link isn't perfect. When you click that link, you're only searching our electronic collections, and if you're not careful, you can miss out on our ample print resources. Always make sure to check our print holdings via the library catalog. If you run into trouble or the results don't make sense, we hope you'll let us know. And if 360 Link tells you we don't have access to the full-text you need, submit an interlibrary loan request via our online form. If you need help navigating the ever more complex information universe, come ask the reference staff for help!

The wonders of WorldCat

As classes get underway and the excitement of research begins, you may find yourself wanting more books than we have in our library. We'd like to encourage you to give WorldCat a try. This database allows you to search holdings of libraries around the world and request an interlibrary loan with a single click. Here's how:

1. Access WorldCat from our Databases A-Z page.

2. Search for a book by title, author, keyword, any way you like!

3. When you see something that looks interesting or relevant, click on the title. The record will give you more information, often including tables of contents and scans of cover images.

4. Click on the link that reads "Borrow this item from another library."

5. Fill in the form, and voila! You'll receive an email when your book arrives.

So give it a whirl! If you'd like help making the most of WorldCat, stop by the reference office, request a consultation, or give us a call at x2225.

Check out Library and Academic Computing workshops

The Library and Academic Computing are offering an expanded lineup of workshops and info sessions for this fall semester. We have added more workshop series so you can focus on one or several software programs. Whether it is art- and design- related software, classroom and lab technology, administrative software, or new technology, these workshops and info sessions are open to current SLC students, faculty, and staff. Unless otherwise noted in the workshop description, there are no prerequisites. Take a look at the calendar of workshops here.