Super Bowl Fever @ the Armacost Library

What will you be doing on Sunday, February 2, 2014? For the second year in a row, I'll be stricken with Super Bowl Fever. Although I'd always thought this could never happen to me, Super Bowl Fever, or simply a love of football could strike you or your loved ones at any time. Do you have the fever? Symptoms can include a rapid heartbeat, restlessness, sudden outbursts, increased appetite, feelings of impending doom and feelings of exhilaration.



Did you know that this country also held a kind of disinterest in the sport at one time? Michael MacCambridge talks about how America grew into their love of the sport in his book America's Game. According to MacCambridge, good management and marketing, along with the rise of television, played a role in football's rise in popularity among Americans. In The Man Who Built the National Football League, Chris Willis attributes much of football's success to one of the NFL's founding fathers, Joe F. Carr. Carr established the foundations of professional football as a big-city sport during his reign as NFL President in the 20's and 30's. Andy Piascik also covers this time period, but his book Gridiron Gauntlet gives voice to 12 African-American men who played football amid the backdrop of segregation.

In Football and Philosophy, editor Michael W. Austin asks readers to take a step back from the game and turn their gaze within. Austin challenges his readers to consider why we're drawn to the sport in the first place, and what that might reveal about who we are and what we value. For those of us with more of a statistical or gambing bent, read Mathletics by Wayne L. Winston. You'll be interested in Part 3, which includes chapters "What makes NFL teams win?" "If passing is better than running, why don't teams always pass?" "Should we go for a one- point or two-point conversion?" "Why is the NFL's overtime system fatally flawed?" And "How valuable are high draft picks in the NFL?"

If you're prefer to read articles on your favorite teams or players, visit the OmniFile Full Text Mega database. With subject headings for teams, players, coaches, and other topics related to football, you'll be able to target your searches and retrieve more relevant results than if you'd conducted keyword (default) searches. For example, a search for the words "peyton" and "manning" returns 233 results (see above), yet a subject search for "manning, peyton, 1976-" returns 115 results (see below).

If you're wondering how I knew the precise subject heading for Manning, let me explain that I didn't know what it was; I had to look for it. I started first with a keyword search which resulted in 233 search results, and looked under the "Refine Results" column (see above) for any subjects related to Manning and saw the image below.

Want to learn another trick? Below "Subject" is a list of publications included in your list of results. I noticed that the New York Times and Sports Illustrated published most of the articles included in my search results. If I wanted to look at either title directly, I could visit the library's home page, click on the "Journals & Magazines" tab and check for full-text access by running two searches--once for online access, once for physical or print access. 

Now that you've got your football and library gear ready, I'll see you at kickoff!

Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys: Broken Verses

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 fourth book discussion of the Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys series, focusing on the novel Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie. The discussion of Broken Verses will be on Saturday, January 25, 2014, 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 Film Series: My Name Is Khan

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.

The first film screening for our Let's Talk About It: Muslim Journeys Film Series will be a showing of My Name Is Khan. The film tells the story of the journey of a Muslim Indian man to regain the love and trust of his wife after a family tragedy. Please be advised that My Name Is Khan runs for 161 minutes. Dr. Priya Jha, Associate Professor of English at University of Redlands, will facilitate a question-and-answer session following the screening, time permitting. This event will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2014 at Gregory Hall, Room 161, from 6 to 9 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 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.

Lois Lowry is visiting Redlands

The Charlotte S. Huck Children’s Literature Festival will take place this week on the 24^th and 25^th. Headlining the stellar list of authors (which includes David Wiesner and Candace Fleming, among many others) as the official Charlotte Huck speaker is Lois Lowry. She will speak this Friday night at 6:15 in Orton Hall. And, students can attend the two day conference for a special price!

Many of you are familiar with Lois Lowry for her Newberry Medal winning book, The Giver, which is a classic of children’s science fiction that involves what appears to be, at first, a utopian society that has ended human suffering in exchange for a life absent of deep emotions.

In celebration of Lowry’s visit to the University, the Theatre Arts Department will stage Eric Coble’s dramatization of The Giver at the intimate Frederick Loewe Theatre from January 23^rd-26^th. If you’re interested in a sneak peak, the Armacost Library is currently displaying costume designs by one of our students, Monique Thompson.

If all this excitement isn’t enough for you, we have every book in The Giver quartet available in the library (First-come, first-served! By the way, you can put holds on books that are currently checked out in order to be next in line). 

Enjoy,

Lua Gregory

First Year Experiences and Humanities Librarian

University of Redlands

"Learning the Ropes:" High School to College Transitions

In December 2013 Project Information Literacy published its second report in their "The Passage Studies" series. This one focused on students' information transitions from high school to college, "Learning the Ropes: How Freshmen Conduct Course Research Once They Enter College." 

The report discusses eight major findings:

• Freshmen discovered their college/university library was much larger and more complex than their high school libraries.
• Searching for academic literature online was difficult--struggling to identify keywords and effective search queries.
• Freshmen had difficulty navigating the print and online collections of the library, and once they had collected literature they had trouble reading it and making connections between their various sources.
• Most Freshmen realized that high school research had not prepared them for college-level research assignments.
• Some Freshmen were transitioning from a reliance on Google to using library databases while others continued their "ingrained habit" of using Google and Wikipedia searches.
• The most common adaptive strategy for transitioning to college-level research amongst the Freshmen interviewed was learning to read academic journal articles and abstracts.
• Freshmen reported that campus librarians (29%) and their English composition instructors (29%) were the most helpful in guiding them through the research process.
• And by the end of their first year in college, Freshmen had begun using the same information sources as their Sophomore, Junior, and Senior counterparts.

For those who work with first year students most of these findings will not come as a surprise.  Nonetheless some observations and recommendations from the report struck a chord with me.  

The researchers identified five recurring misconceptions they heard from the students interviewed, and which they called the "Freshman Myths." 

I think both librarians and disciplinary faculty may, at times, be at fault for perpetuating these myths. Sometimes we emphasize a particular scholarly database, for instance JSTOR, to the exclusion of teaching students about more appropriate scholarly databases for their subject area/discipline.  And almost daily I hear administrators, faculty, and students proclaim that "everything is online." This proclamation is often intertwined with the misconception that these "digital natives," our current undergraduate students, are adept at searching online systems. 

The final recommendation of the report is to "reframe [our] expectations...It is incorrect to assume that because most of today’s freshmen grew up with a thriving Internet at their fingertips, they are naturals at college-level research.  The cognitive skills needed for scholarly inquiry are very different than finding ready-made answers using a Google search."  How do we transform the skills students do bring with them into the skills necessary for navigating the complex information landscape available to them in college?  

Interested in joining the conversation?  Join us at the Armacost Library's Information Literacy Faculty Showcase featuring the History Department this year.  And look for report outs on the Armacost Library's action research project studying the impact of information literacy instruction on student achievement.

More reactions to "Learning the Ropes":

Barbara Fister, "Excited and Overwhelmed: First Year Students in the Library"

K. G. Schneider, "Project Info Lit and the “Ginormous” Problem"

Happy New Year!

Armacost Library wishes the entire community a Happy New Year! This is always a good time to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year. Some highlights of 2013 include Armacost Library’s involvement in such programs as World Book Night and Read Across America. A series of book discussions, invited speakers and film showings were provided as part of the program Muslim Journeys, which will continue into the 2014 Spring Semester.

Armacost Library also had the pleasure of displaying student art in the entryway of the library, including sculpture and two-dimensional design pieces. High quality undergraduate student work was celebrated at the 5^th annual Armacost Library Undergraduate Research Award reception and faculty work was also given praise at the Information Literacy Faculty Showcase.

The Library launched its mobile version of its website, which allows the community to browse library resources on their handheld devices. Also, the 2013 Fall semester marks the beginning of an extensive research project, titled Assessment in Action, on how information literacy instruction impacts student achievement. The Assessment in Action team will continue this research project over the next three years – stay tuned for the results!

All in all, 2013 was a busy and fulfilling year. We welcome you back in 2014 and look forward to seeing you in the library!

Posted for Travis Upshaw, Night Supervisor at Armacost Library

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.

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.

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)

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 !!!

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 20^th 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

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

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.

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.