Monday, December 16, 2013

Discover Redlands!


 Whether you are a visitor to Redlands for a short period of time, a student on campus for four years or a native to the City of Redlands, there are lots of fascinating historical facts and tidbits about Redlands and the surrounding areas to be discovered in the Armacost Library. 

See vintage photos and learn about mule-drawn streetcars in early Redlands, the former winery located near the corner of Colton and University prior to the campus’ founding, the visits of Presidents McKinley, Taft and Roosevelt to Redlands and much more in Golden Jubilee, Redlands, California: 1888-1938.

Meet James Graham Johnston and Dr. Wayne Orton and discover the early days of Johnston College as you immerse yourself in The History of Johnston College 1969-1979.

Interested in what early Redlanders did for fun? How about harness racing, gymkhanas, Crokinole, firemen’s tournaments, long distance bicycle racing, fencing, lawn bowling, and field archery …did you know the National Field Archery Association was founded in Redlands? Learn more in Only one Redlands: changing patterns in a Southern California town.

Follow the U of R fashions, trends and excitement of days gone by casually browsing decades of
La Letras. Such a fun way to familiarize yourself with the Bike Club, dorm decorating contests, Alpha Beta Pie, field hockey inter-class tournaments, Interim, KUOR, Snow parties, or Mud Fest and much, much more! 


The resources highlighted above are only a small fraction of the materials available to you at the Armacost Library to quench your thirst for local history. Please consult the library catalog, ask to speak with a librarian or make an appointment to view materials in our Special Collections. 

Posted for Trisha Aurelio, Technical Services Library Assistant.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Information Literacy & Scholarship

Information literacy is about determining one’s need for, and an ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use information. It is also about understanding how information is socially situated and produced. Like critical thinking, information literacy encompasses a wide range of skills and thought processes that have become increasingly relevant in today’s complex information landscape.

In the spring term of each year the Armacost Library joins faculty and students across the University to celebrate scholarship and the part critical information literacy plays in research and scholarship.



Join the Armacost Library and the Department of History for an hour-long showcase highlighting the History faculty’s integration and development of information literacy competencies across their curriculum. From introductory courses through the senior capstone, students learn a range of skills and habits of thought, including identifying appropriate primary and secondary sources and developing the skills necessary to produce original research projects.


ALURA reception, April 2010.




The Armacost Library Undergraduate Research Award (ALURA) celebrates student development of information literacy and library research skills.  The award was established to reward those students who demonstrate thoughtfulness and creativity in their approach to research, the integration of evidence into their own work, and whose work exhibits excellence in critical thinking.

  • The deadline for student submissions = Friday, March 14, 2014.
  • Find out more about the ALURA.
  • Read past award winning submissions on inSPIRe@Redlands.

Monday, December 02, 2013

Prize Winning Books at the Armacost Library



Prize Winners @ the Armacost Library


Amongst the hundreds of thousands of books available at the Armacost Library you will find many award winners covering a vast time span.  Here are a few.  Please let us know if you find award-winning works that we do not yet own, and we will pursue them.  Thanks.

A Selection of Man Booker Prize winners:

Catton, Eleanor. The Luminaries. New York: Little, Brown, 2013.
On order
Mantel, Hilary. Bring Up the Bodies. New York: Henry Holt, 2012.
PR 6063 .A438 B75 2012
Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. New York: Knopf, 2011.
PR 6052 .A6657 S46 2011
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: Random House, 1997.
PR 9499.3 .R59 G63 1997
Naipaul, V.S. In a Free State. New York: Knopf, 1971.
PR 9272.9 .N32 I5 1984

A Few Books by Nobel Prize recipients:

Born, Max. Atomic Physics. New York: Hafner, 1957.
QC 173 .B634 1958.  (Physics)
Rutherford, Ernest. Radiations from Radioactive Substances. Cambridge (Eng.): The
University Press, 1930.
QC 721 .R94  (Chemistry)
Lessing, Doris. African Stories. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965.
PR 6023 .E833 A69 1965 (Literature)
Aung San Suu Kyi. Freedom from Fear: and Other Writings. New York: Penguin, 1991.
DS530 .A86 1991b (Peace)
Hayek, Friedrich A. von. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1944.
HD82 .H38 1994 (Economic Sciences)

Monday, November 25, 2013

Thanksgiving, Parades and Library Databases???

Elliot Erwitt 1988
What does Thanksgiving have to do with library databases? I wanted to find out more about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and wondered if an academic library would have any information about this type of cultural phenomenon...

I first began looking for images of the parade balloons in the ARTstor database and located several beautiful photographs like the one shown above. A Google image search produced hundreds of additional parade images!


My research continued with JSTOR --- it's one of my favorite library databases because it is easy to use and has a wide variety of journal topics and titles. I tried a simple search on "Macy's" AND "Thanksgiving day parade" which resulted in 69 article results:

JSTOR search results

I tried the same search terms in the ProQuest database, which produced over 5,000 possible full text articles!

ProQuest search results

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the library databases could provide so much information on a single topic!  I'd better get busy ---  got lot's of reading to do!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

All That Jazz in the Armacost Library

 
Louis Armstrong by samkling

Are you interested in jazz? Did you know that the Armacost Library has an impressive music collection, encompassing many genres, including jazz? Whether you’re new to jazz, or a long-time fan, you’re sure to find many recordings that will enhance your enjoyment of this swinging, emotive, and unique form of musical expression in our library.

For a broad overview of jazz, from the very beginning to the 1970s, the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a comprehensive anthology spread out over 5 compact discs. For a more detailed listening experience of the beginnings of jazz, you might consider the recordings of Scott Joplin (The Complete Rags of Scott Joplin) and Jelly Roll Morton (The Jelly Roll Morton Centennial: His Complete Victor Recordings), both innovative composers and pioneers in laying the groundwork for what became jazz.

Louis Armstrong, a towering figure in the history of 20th century music, was known as the ambassador of jazz from its early days in the 1920s to his death in 1971. A trumpeter and singer, he probably did more to popularize and bring worldwide attention to jazz, than any other performer. His early Columbia Record recordings from the 1920s can be found on Louis Armstrong and The Best of Louis Armstrong. His recordings from the 1930s through the 1950s are included on The Complete RCA Victor recordings.

Duke Ellington, another titan in the world of jazz, was a composer, pianist, and band leader of jazz orchestras. One of his most famous ensembles, the Blanton-Webster band (named for the bass player, Jimmy Blanton, and the tenor saxophonist, Ben Webster), was active during the early 1940s and many of their best recordings are included on The Blanton-Webster Band. Ellington was interested in expanding jazz beyond the restrictions of the traditional song, and one of his first ventures into writing longer, thematically related compositions was the collection known as Black, Brown, and Beige. One of his last albums, And His Mother Called Him Bill (1967), was recorded after the death of his frequent collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. It is a fine collection of Strayhorn compositions, including one of my favorites, the hauntingly lovely “Lotus Blossom.”

Billie Holiday, one of the most famous jazz vocalists, recorded during the 1930s to the 1950s. Her early work on Columbia Records can be found on The Quintessential Billie Holiday. Vol. 1 and several other volumes in the series. Her middle period work during the 1940s-50s can be found on the compilation Billie Holiday's greatest hits, and her mid to late 1950s recordings are collected on Billie's best.

Ella Fitzgerald, known as the “First Lady of Song,” was (arguably) the most famous of all jazz vocalists. The Ultimate Ella Fitzgerald is a collection of her recordings from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Love Songs: Best of the Verve Songbooks, highlights her recordings of the great American songbook during the 1950s and 1960s, and Ella and Basie is a delightful album that Fitzgerald made in 1963 with another jazz great, Count Basie.  A wide-ranging overview of jazz vocalists can be found on the anthology The Jazz Singers: A Smithsonian Collection of Jazz Vocals from 1919-1994.

The saxophone has played a prominent role in jazz; two of the early masters of the instrument, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young are featured on Classic Tenors, a compilation of songs recorded in 1943. Another highly influential saxophonist, Charlie Parker, can be heard on The Legendary Dial Masters, Bop: Bird’s Best Bop on Verve (“Bird” being Parker’s nickname), and The Essential Charlie Parker. John Coltrane was another important horn player and composer who pushed the boundaries of jazz. He collaborated with many famous musicians at the beginning of his career, notably with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, but his first major album as a leader was Blue Train recorded in 1957. Other notable Coltrane albums are Giant Steps (1959), My Favorite Things (1960), and A Love Supreme (1964).

The musicians that I’ve written about and the recordings that I have mentioned are only a small fraction of the world of jazz that is available at the Armacost Library (look for another post in the coming year, there’s so much more to discuss). If you are interested in further resources, including DVDs and books, consult the library’s catalog or ask a librarian for assistance. If you wish to check-out compact discs or DVDs, simply bring a list with the Call Numbers of the titles to the Circulation Desk; the Student Assistant will retrieve the CDs or DVDs for you.

Catch you on the flip-side!

Susan LaRose
Serials Assistant
Armacost Library

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

No game tonight? Read a book!

Cat Basketball Slam Dunk by Adam Rifkin 

Fall and winter are my favorite seasons of the year because there’s college football and basketball and the NFL and the NBA and the MLB World Series! Yippee!

I not only like to watch sports, I like to read about sports. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. It discusses the art of sabermetrics to determine what bargain player will best mesh with the rest of your team statistically to win. It made watching the movie so much more fun! Oh, and Brad Pitt is in it!

And how about Glory Road: My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever by Don Haskins. This coach decided to play the best players regardless of race. Watch the movie too, you’ll get a history lesson.

Currently, I’m reading Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson, the former Laker coach. He discusses his management style and how to manage guys with big personalities. Guys like Kobe, Shaq, and MJ. Don’t forget big personality Dennis Rodman!

On my read-next list is Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales; also, Leagueof Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth by brothers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru.

Other books I recommend are Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL by N. Jeremi Duru. This is a true eye-opener about African-American coaches fighting for equal opportunity within the NFL. You might also be interested in knowing that we have Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger and yes, there was a movie, too. And a TV show.

Short on time? Don’t forget, we carry Sports Illustrated, my personal favorite. You can find the most current issue in the Pop section across from the Help Desk, and the older issues can be located in the periodicals shelving area. Don’t know where this is? Come on in, and ask. We’re all friendly folks aiming to “find every book its reader,” one of Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science.

What sports books and movies have you enjoyed? Gotta go, there’s a game on.

Happy reading!


Rebecca Clayton
Acquisitions/Cataloging Assistant
University of Redlands

Monday, November 11, 2013

Let’s Talk About It: Muslim Journeys: House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East


Armacost Library, Campus Diversity & Inclusion, Redlands Peace Academy, and A.K. Smiley Public Library have received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association to host events to highlight Islam and the cultures, histories, and stories of Muslims in the United States and around the world.

At A.K. Smiley Public Library, we will be hosting the third book discussion of the Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys series, focusing on the memoir House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid. The discussion of House of Stone will be on Saturday, November 23, 2013, 2-4 p.m.

All book-based discussions are led by Dr. Patrick Wing, Assistant Professor of History. Copies of all the Muslim Journeys books to be discussed are available for borrowing from Armacost Library and A.K. Smiley Public Library. Due to limited space, pre-registration for the book-based discussions is strongly encouraged, but not required. This can be done through the project website (link provided below, through the Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys Book Discussions tab), by contacting Melissa Cardenas-Dow at the Armacost Library, or registering in person at A.K. Smiley Public Library.

We will also be hosting several film screenings on campus. All events are free and open to the public.

For more detailed information and online pre-registration, please visit toe project website: http://library.redlands.edu/muslimjourneys.

For inquires, questions, and suggestions, please contact Melissa Cardenas-Dow at Melissa_Cardenasdow@redlands.edu or x8089.



Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys, a reading and discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in cooperation with the American Library Association.









Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Let’s Talk About It: Muslim Journeys: Maria Khani, guest speaker



Armacost Library, Campus Diversity & Inclusion, Redlands Peace Academy, and A.K. Smiley Public Library have received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association to host events that highlight Islam and the cultures, histories, and stories of Muslims in the United States and around the world.

Maria Khani, chair of the Women's Committee of the Islamic Institute of Orange County in Anaheim, CA will come to the University of Redlands as a guest speaker. She will talk about the basics of Islamic religious practices and how these are different from cultural practices prevalent among Muslim-majority societies. A facilitated question-and-answer session will follow Maria's presentation. This event will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2013 at Gregory Hall, Room 161, from 4 to 5 p.m.

For more detailed information and online pre-registration, please visit the project website: http://library.redlands.edu/muslimjourneys.

For inquiries, questions, and suggestions, please contact Melissa Cardenas-Dow at Melissa_Cardenasdow@redlands.edu or x8089.

Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journies, a reading and discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in cooperation with the American Library Association.






Tuesday, November 05, 2013

What's new in the world of electronic resources?

SCELC Product Review Committee meeting at Armacost Library, June 21, 2012


If you're a student or faculty member at the University of Redlands, you might encounter librarians when you come to the library with a question about your research, see them around campus at an event or committee meeting, or find one of them teaching an instruction session for your class. On campus, each of our librarians focuses on faculty and students in a set of related academic subjects (arts and humanities, education, business, interdisciplinary studies, behavioral and social sciences, natural and physical sciences).

Armacost librarians also have functional roles behind the scenes, overseeing different aspects of library operations. Sometimes this work takes us away from campus. For example, as part of my work as Electronic Resources Librarian, last week I found myself traveling to the Bay Area to attend a committee meeting related to the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC).

SCELC is a nonprofit organization representing 110 member libraries in California, Nevada and Texas. It negotiates advantageous prices and user-friendly license terms for e-books, e-journals and databases purchased by member libraries. Partnering with SCELC increases our negotiating power in the market for scholarly information, allowing us to secure significant discounts off the list price of electronic resources, and stretch library funds to acquire a broader range of information. SCELC also educates its members about the economic and technical challenges facing libraries through email listservs, committees and an annual regional conference.

Last week's meeting of the SCELC Product Review Committee (PRC) began with committee members sharing recent developments at their libraries. Several attendees echoed initiatives that we are currently undertaking at Armacost Library, such as creating a new repository for student research, or defining the role of information literacy and library instruction in a new campus plan for general education. Many libraries are investing heavily in e-books, allowing student and faculty research interests to drive the creation of on-demand electronic collections available 24/7. The concept of "resource sharing" also came up frequently. The landscape of scholarly information has become so vast that even the largest research libraries cannot claim to collect "everything". Each library is increasingly connected to the collections of other libraries through mutual agreements and technical infrastructure. If you've placed an interlibrary loan request or obtained a reciprocal borrowing card to check out books at another library in the area, you've experienced two traditional types of resource sharing agreements among libraries. More recent collaborations seek to speed up the experience of lending books and articles between libraries, or create shared archives of older magazine and journal articles to help preserve the scholarly record.

After we all shared the latest news from our libraries, the next item on the agenda was a discussion with representatives from the New York Times. Publishers and database vendors frequently visit the PRC to discuss their newest offerings and better understand the needs of their customers -- libraries and the students and faculty that use them. Librarians use these discussions to influence publishers' business decisions at an early stage of development, and anticipate future trends that might affect our campuses. The meeting with the New York Times reps delved into the economics and business strategy of the newspaper industry, now that people can get news from Facebook, Google News or blogs as an alternative to subscribing to a print newspaper. There are no easy answers to the question of how newspapers like the Times can sustain their operations. One reason their representatives approached a group of academic librarians is that the Times has recognized that partnering with educators is key to helping raise a generation of new readers interested in substantive discussion of current events.

After lunch, the agenda included discussion of how SCELC could help smaller academic institutions support the open access (OA) movement. While mandates at large research institutions or science grants from agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) come to mind most frequently when many of us think of open access publishing, smaller colleges and universities - including many SCELC members - have faculty, students and affiliated researchers interested in OA publishing as well. One committee member observed that many faculty have had success negotiating open access rights with their publisher on an individual basis.

The agenda concluded with discussion of how librarians can encourage database vendors make their resources accessible to library visitors with disabilities. A few years ago the library conducted an accessibility audit in partnership with the University's Working Group on Disability Issues, and the question of how to promote database accessibility has been on our minds since then. Increasing the number of databases that either support assistive technology like as screen readers, or include built-in text-to-speech functionality is a good start. Database vendors are looking to librarians to articulate their users' needs, so I was glad to see the Product Review Committee take up the conversation.

Given the way the electronic information landscape is changing, professional development is crucial for librarians. My colleagues and I learn a lot by attending conferences and participating on committees like the PRC. Now that I'm back at the library, I look forward to applying what I've learned to my day-to-day work with electronic resources.

Sanjeet Mann
Electronic Resources Librarian
University of Redlands

Friday, November 01, 2013

Student Art Exhibit and Reception

The Armacost Library is pleased to host a combined student art exhibit of Two-Dimensional Designs and Sculptures!

All of the artwork will be on display in the second floor of the library through November 14th.  The staircases to the third floor and the library lobby have been used to showcase a variety of Textural Design Studies: Pen on Bristol Board and Planar Sculptures.


Mark Mesrobian
INVITATION: Everyone is invited to attend a Reception for the Artists on Tuesday, November 5th from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the Armacost Library lobby.

Sculpture: exhibit installation 10-31-13
Reception for Artists 11-5-13

Professor Renee Azenaro
Fall 2013

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Stories and Films to Make You Scream (for Halloween)!

Halloween by Gaudencio Garcinuno

Halloween is almost upon us and a scary story or film is the perfect way to get into the spirit. Luckily, Armacost Library has you covered if you are seeking frightening literature or films for the evening hours. Here follows a small glimpse of what our long and winding stacks have to offer.

Classics and Masters of Horror
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury: A carnival arrives in a sleepy town a week before Halloween, with many sinister secrets!

Nightmares and Dreamscapes as well as Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, both by Stephen King. These tomes are his first two collections of short stories, many of which are award winners. We have more books by Stephen King if you are a fan.

Tales by H. P. Lovecraft: This massive collection includes Lovecraft's famous "The Call of Cthulhu."

Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe: This collection has all of Poe's top stories, including "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." A must-read.

Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley: Mary began writing this classic when she was 18 years old. This volume includes the original draft of the novel, without her husband's (Percy Shelley) edits.

Dracula by Bram Stoker: Stoker's Gothic masterpiece which influenced the modern incarnation of vampire stories.

Restless Spirits: Ghost Stories by American Women, 1872-1926: Classics from women writers such as Edith Wharton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.

The Haunted Looking Glass: Ghost Stories: These are Edward Gorey's favorite ghost stories, many of them classics by authors such as Charles Dickens, Algernon Blackwood, E. Nesbit, Bram Stoker, and others.

Modern Horror Fiction
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance--Now With Ultraviolet Zombie Mayhem by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith: Austen's classic, but with zombies!

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks: Read this epic on the conflict between humans and zombies.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman: The story of a boy raised by ghosts in his graveyard home.

By the Light of the Moon by Dean Koontz: Artists, psychics and evil doctors...

Damned: Life is Short, Death is Forever by Chuck Palahniuk: Check out Palahniuk's take on eternal torment.

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice: A family saga of witchcraft in New Orleans from sinister story-spinner, Anne Rice.

Films
American Psycho (2000): A modern take on the classic.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: This is a 1919 horror classic that influenced many modern day horror filmmakers.
Bram Stoker's Dracula: This 1997 film follows Dracula as he moves to London to search for his lost love.
Häxan: A 1922 silent film which depicts witchcraft from the 15th - 17th centuries.
Psycho (1960): Hitchcock's terror classic at the Bates Motel.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): A Tim Burton classic starring Jack Skellington who brings Christmas to Halloweentown.
The Shining (1980): A Stanley Kubrick film featuring insanity in a Colorado hotel.
Sleepy Hollow (1999): A Tim Burton film. Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod and is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the Headless Horseman.
Vampyr: An early vampire classic from 1932.
Waxworks: A 1924 classic directed by Paul Leni.

Wishing you a safe, yet spine-tingling week,

Lua Gregory
First Year Experience and Humanities Librarian
Armacost Library

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Let’s Talk About It: Muslim Journeys: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood



Armacost Library, Campus Diversity & Inclusion, Redlands Peace Academy, and A.K. Smiley Public Library have received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association to host events that highlight Islam and the cultures, histories, and stories of Muslims in the United States and around the world.

At A.K. Smiley Public Library, we will be hosting the second book discussion of the Let’s Talk About It: Muslim Journeys series, focusing on the graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi. The discussion of Persepolis will be on Saturday October 26, 2013, 2-4 p.m.

All book-based discussions are led by Dr. Patrick Wing, Assistant Professor of History. Copies of all the Muslim Journeys books to be discussed are available for borrowing from Armacost Library and A.K. Smiley Public Library. Due to limited space, pre-registration for the book-based discussions is strongly encouraged, but not required. This can be done through the project website (link provided below, through the Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys Book Discussions tab), by contacting Melissa Cardenas-Dow at the Armacost Library, or registering in person at A.K. Smiley Public Library.

We will also be hosting several film screenings and guest speakers on campus. All events are open to the public.

For more detailed information and online pre-registration, please visit the project website: http://library.redlands.edu/muslimjourneys.

For inquiries, questions, and suggestions, please contact Melissa Cardenas-Dow at Melissa_Cardenasdow@redlands.edu or x8089.

Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys, a reading and discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in cooperation with the American Library Association.





Monday, October 21, 2013

Searching for Answers

Ever wish you could search the library website from a single search box? Ever ask why book searches are separated from article searches? How about why you're prompted to log into library databases even after you've logged into myRedlands? 

In a nutshell, it's because the Armacost Library website is comprised of several systems that don't necessarily communicate with each other.

To get a sense of the complex nature of library websites, let's take a look at the library's home page. This page alone knits together a patchwork of nine different systems.


  1. Article Databases is actually an aggregate of over one hundred links to various information systems provided by dozens of vendors.
  2. Books & More is a searchable database, WebPAC Pro, from Innovative Interfaces that helps you find mostly physical items in our collections.
  3. Course Reserves is a separate, searchable module, WebPAC Pro Course Reserves, from Innovative Interfaces that helps you find items reserved by professors for their students.
  4. Journals & Magazines is a searchable database, 360 Core, from Serials Solutions that finds journals, magazines, and newspapers for which full text is accessible through Armacost Library.
  5. Research guides, and many of the library's web pages, created with LibGuides CMS from Springshare, teach you about available resources and how to use them.
  6. Interlibrary Loan, managed with  ILLiad from OCLC, lets you request items unavailable at Armacost Library from other libraries.
  7. How Do I? is a searchable database of common library questions and answers powered by LibAnswers from Springshare.
  8. Today's Hours displays today's hours using LibCal from Springshare.
  9. Library News & the Slideshow integrates library news and highlights using  Blogger from Google, with a bit of help from Springshare and javascript.

While it can be challenging to navigate through a myriad of systems, get to know these tools and you'll develop your skills as a researcher. Use these tools and you'll come to understand their distinct and complementary roles in research. If you have any questions, and I'm sure you do, don't hesitate to contact me or anyone else in the library.

Paige Mann
Physical Sciences Librarian (and Web Experiences Librarian)
909-748-8088

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

2013 Nobel Prizes

Every year, when the Nobel Prizes are announced, I experience a surge of interest in science.  I usually watch a few TED Talks and read some of the winner in Literature’s writings, and sometimes I wonder if I could track down and read an original paper with the ideas that led to a Nobel Prize.  Unfortunately, my science education topped out around sophomore biology, so the idea that I could make it through something of that caliber is, objectively speaking, hilarious.

So, for science types, I’ve located those original papers that won this year’s Nobel prizes.  And for the rest of us, I’ve found some clever things to read.  Everything can be found in the Armacost Library.  Enjoy!
Medicine

Rothman, Schekman and Südhof discovered how cells transport key substances, which has implications for conditions like immuno-deficiency, diabetes, and autism.  For some Sherlockian adventures in medicine, check out The deadly dinner party & other medical detective stories.

Physics

Englert and Higgs were among the first to identify what gives weight to the universe-- you might remember the Higgs Boson particle was finally pinned down a few years ago-- and their original papers were published in 1964.

The Nobel people wrote a detailed article on the Higgs Boson here, and a friendlier article for non-physicists here.  If that all sounds fascinating, check the shelves for The Particle at the End of the Universe.

Not enough pictures?  How about a graphic novel on physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman?

If even that’s too much, see what you can get out of this recording of “Higgs Boson for string quintet” on Naxos, the library’s streaming music service.

Chemistry

Karplus, Levitt, and Warshel developed computer programs to simulate chemical reactions, which help guide the experiments that are carried out in the real world.  Again, the people at Nobel described it all for chemists and then for the rest of us.

If that’s still incomprehensible, you can read about chemists who have saved the world in The Alchemy of Air and Obsessive Genius: the Inner World of Marie Curie.

Literature

We have plenty of works by Canadian author Alice Munro.  You may want to start with her collection The Beggar Maid, which was also nominated for the Booker Prize in 1980 (Munro won that award in 2009). 

Peace

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the Peace Prize, and you can read about the history of chemical warfare in War of nerves: chemical warfare from World War I to al-Qaeda.  For something a bit more exciting, Cassidy's run: the secret spy war over nerve gas tells a true story of espionage during the cold war.

Economics

The prize in economics was not in Nobel’s will, but was created by Sweden’s Central Bank.  With what may have been unintentional irony, three Americans were recognized for contributions in economics: Fama, Hansen, and Shiller. 

You can find a few of Shiller’s books in the library, including his classic work “Irrational exuberance”.  For more on the psychology of irrationality, check out author Dan Ariely.

Citations: nearly all of these articles can be found in the library, either on-site or in the databases.
 
Medicine
  • Novick P, Schekman R: Secretion and cell-surface growth are blocked in a temperature-sensitive mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1979; 76:1858-1862.
  • Balch WE, Dunphy WG, Braell WA, Rothman JE: Reconstitution of the transport of protein between successive compartments of the Golgi measured by the coupled incorporation of N-acetylglucosamine. Cell 1984; 39:405-416.
  • Kaiser CA, Schekman R: Distinct sets of SEC genes govern transport vesicle formation and fusion early in the secretory pathway. Cell 1990; 61:723-733.
  • Perin MS, Fried VA, Mignery GA, Jahn R, Südhof TC: Phospholipid binding by a synaptic vesicle protein homologous to the regulatory region of protein kinase C. Nature 1990; 345:260-263.
  • Sollner T, Whiteheart W, Brunner M, Erdjument-Bromage H, Geromanos S, Tempst P, Rothman JE: SNAP receptor implicated in vesicle targeting and fusion. Nature 1993; 362:318-324.
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Economics