Citation Station!

Choo choo! It's that time of year again--the conference paper train is pulling into Citation Station! Reference staff are ready to help you resolve RefWorks vexers, citation conundrums, and styling head-scratchers! We'll be staffing a desk on the main floor of the library next Monday, May 5, from 10am to noon, style guides in tow. And we'll be there every day at that time until the end of the term. Now, that's the ticket!

If you need citation assistance and you can't find us, there are plenty of other ways to reach us: send us an email at reference@slc.edu, fill out our online consultation request form (located here), call us at x2225, or check out a list of web guides on del.icio.us.

Back up your work!

Conference papers are almost due, which means now is the best time to back up your work. How?

You have a number of options:

* 100 MB of storage space on your H: Drive.
Find out more here: http://pages.slc.edu/~support/tag/h-drive
* Email it to yourself.
Your Gryphon Mail account has over 6 GB of space available. You could email your conference paper to yourself everyday and still have plenty of space for everything else.
* Use Gryphon Mail Documents.
Upload or email all your documents into your Gryphon Mail account. In Gryphon Mail, click Documents, then click Upload. Look for an email address in 'Email-In Your Documents and Files' and follow the instructions.
* A USB stick, thumb drive, flash drive.
It has many names but they all do the same thing. This will cost you some money, (around $30 for an 8 GB drive) but it will allow you access your work if you're not online.


A friendly reminder from the folks in Academic Computing/Help Desk.

The library celebrates Earth Day!

Earth Day is April 22nd. It is a day to celebrate our successes and progress in reducing our environmental impact and to reflect upon ways to improve in the future.

In honor of Earth Day, here are some of the ways in which libraries are environmentally friendly:

1. The library promotes resource sharing. This means that fewer books and journals have to be produced, which in turn means less stuff being thrown away.
2. Changing our light bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, where possible.
3. Libraries encourage free access to information. Everyone can use the information in the library to make informed decisions about their environmental impact.

This doesn't mean that we can rest on our laurels, however! We recognize that there is room for improvement. Some of the library's current initiatives are:

1. Reducing our building's energy usage. Compared to last year, the library reduced its energy consumption by nearly 10% - a significant achievement, but one that we are actively seeking to improve.
2. Reducing the amount of garbage that we produce.
3. Updating our printers so that they are both faster and more efficient. (Next academic year.)

We are always open to suggestions, so if you have some bright ideas about how to improve, please click here to send us an email.

For more information about Earth Day, please visit:
http://www.earthday.gov/
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/
http://www.earthsite.org/

Esther Goes 24/7

As of Sunday, April 27, the Library will be open for student use until the end of the semester. The circulation desk will close at 2 a.m. each evening, re-opening at 8:30 a.m. Please remember to limit food to snacks in bags and drinks in covered containers.

During the 24 hour period, it is especially important to remember that the Library is a shared community space, and we hope we'll all respect the needs of others for a clean and quiet space to complete conference and coursework. Please let library staff know of any problems you encounter during this busy time of year.

Last days for book recalls and ILL

The end of the semester is approaching rapidly. April 19th will be the last day for book recalls, and April 26th will be the last day for interlibrary loan requests. If you need help with your research before the end of the semester, please click here to set up a research consultation with a librarian.

Welcome GreenFILE!

EBSCOhost has just unveiled a new free bibliographic database of environmental studies literature. The database includes citations from more than 200 scholarly and non-scholarly sources including backfiles of Bioscience, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, and the Journal of Ecology, and key popular sources like Natural Life and Mother Earth News. Access this resource at http://www.greeninfoonline.com or through our EBSCO databases link on the Library's Databases A-Z page. You can find additional online resources for environmental studies under the 'environment' tag on our del.icio.us page, located here.

Most of what you'll find in GreenFILE are citations. If you need help finding the full text in our catalog, please consult a reference librarian!

Human Universals: Facts and/or Fiction?

The Third Sarah Lawrence symposium will be held on Tuesday, April 22, from 1:30 to 3:30 in the Library's Pillow Room. The topic of the symposium is "Human Universals: Facts and/or Fiction?" What do all humans share? How do we talk intelligently about human commonalities and differences? What does the term "human" imply? These and other questions will be discussed by Nancy Baker (Philosophy), Leah Olson (Biology), Elizabeth Johnston (Psychology), and Robert Desjarlais (Anthropology) who will speak about these very important issues from the different perspectives of their disciplines. Michael Siff (Computer Science) will be the moderator.

Tax forms available online

It's that time of year again--tax time! The Library no longer receives printed forms from the Federal or State tax agencies. You can find links to appropriate forms and instructions here. If you need help locating any other forms, please contact the reference staff at x2225 or stop by our office on the main floor of the library.

JSTOR has a new look!

We know you love JSTOR, and we hope the new JSTOR platform makes you feel requited! Just rolled out this week, the JSTOR changes include a new MyJSTOR feature that allows you to save searches and citations to a personal JSTOR account, simplified printing, improved proximity search options in Advanced Search, and just what we've always wanted--the functionality to search within results, a real boon for the overwhelmed!

We know that change can be challenging, so please contact the reference desk with any questions or problems, or for a refresher on how to make this rich repository of scholarship work best for you. Call us at x2225, stop by our office on the main floor of the library, or make a research consultation request using our online form.

April is National Poetry Month ....

In honor of National Poetry Month, the library's new fiction shelf will feature a rotating selection of poets and new poetry publications. Selections will change frequently so come and see what the library has to offer!

Or, register at http://www.poets.org/ to receive a poem each day for the month of April.

Pardon our dust: Reading Room renovations

You may have noticed a large open space on the main floor of the Library since Spring Break. No, we're not unveiling practice space for your gymnastics floor routine--we're continuing renovations for our new Reading Room! Over the break, campus staff removed most of the furniture left from the former computer lab to make way for new carpet, tables, and chairs for the Friends of the Library-funded renovation. This renovation will add a substantial amount of new seating to our library, complete with wireless Internet and places for you to plug in your laptops. We're excited about the changes, and hope you are too. We're on track to complete the new space for the start of school next fall.