National Library Week- Day One

It's National Library Week! As part of the celebration, Proquest (a database company) is offering free access to three of its databases. Here is the info, from Proquest- no log in is required!

To celebrate libraries and the world of information they provide--ProQuest
is offering *free, open access* to three of our most popular student
resources
at:
http://www.proquestk12.com/go/celebrate

-- CultureGrams: local experts document the culture and daily life
of the world's peoples--from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

--
eLibrary:
high-quality, high-interest, and highly usable full text and
multimedia aligned
to over 20,000 most-studied topics.

-- SIRS
Discoverer: safe,
kid-friendly online discovery environment for young
learners from elementary to
middle school.

Happy Library Week!

Words! (is Cheap!)

[from the theatre department...]

You are cordially invited to attend "WORDS!" presented by the NVCC Theatre Department in the PLAYBOX Theatre.

Performance dates and times are:

Thursday, April 2nd at 3:00 PM- THIS IS FREE!!! (seating limited, first come, first served)
Friday, April 3rd at 7:30 PM- tickets are $1.00! (what a bargain!)
Saturday, April 4th at 7:30 PM- tickets are $1.00

The show is about WORDS! Where did they come from? What are they? What do we use them for? In the show, we will present two original short plays, poetry, some mildly offensive jokes, deathbed quotations, scenes from classic literature and, of course, some Shakespeare. Much of the show is original. Lots of students helped put it together! Come be a part of something new!

NEW GROUP STUDY ROOM!

What?

A small group study room with 5 computer stations and one table with chairs

Where?

L522- it's inside L523 (the big computer lab on the 5th floor)

Who?

You! (and your friends, or your group)

When?

Between 10-5, Monday-Thursday.

How?

Ask at the circ desk to be let in. You may be limited to 2 hours if there is a long line.

Have fun!!

Things you can get from the library that aren't books

• headphones
• flash drives
• cds
• movies
• books on tape/cd

Cold? Come check out our new FIREPLACE. Really!

We're pulling out all the stops for the reading that will take place in room L524 on Wednesday- we're getting a fireplace!!

Well, a prop fireplace. It comes from the theatre department. But it's so cool, and it's going to look awesome.

Did we mention that there would be hot chocolate served?

Welcome (Back)!

The spring 09 semester is upon us and the library staff would like to welcome you, or welcome you back, to campus! If you have any questions, please call (575-8024), IM (see left), or stop by on the 4th floor of the L building.

Here are some quick facts:

• We're open 8-8 M-T, 8-6 W-R, 8-12 F, and 10-2 Sat.
• The main phone number is (203) 575-8024.
• If you don't have an ID number and password yet, you can still use a computer.
• If you don't have a ID card yet, you can still check things out.
• We have fun things too- movies, music, books. Check out the music and movies links on the right sidebar of this blog to see some of our latest additions.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Winter Break at the Library

Whether you're on campus to register for classes, take a wintersession course, or just use a computer, make sure you stop by the library. Not only are the librarians here to help you, but we have lots of books, movies and music that you can check out to entertain you over the break.

And that means you too, faculty!

Summer Semester Hours and other bits of information

So, here are our Summer Semester Hours:

Monday through Thursday, 8 am to 6 pm
Friday 8 am to 12 pm
Saturday and Sunday, closed

As usual, the internet is open all night long. :)

If you are on campus, this summer, come by the library and head up to the L523 room. We have ALL NEW COMPUTERS! They are so nice, they have bigger screens and you can plug your headphones into any of them so you can listen to things. The USB ports are on the actual computer, behind the monitor, on the left hand side. You'll see it when you check them out.

Oh, and we have air conditioning.

Still here

You might be here too, or you might have taken the summer off. Heck, you might have even graduated and are off to the next leg of your journey. But, we're not- we're here all summer! The library is open for the summer, from 8-4 Monday through Thursday and 8-12 on Fridays. So, if you need to print out some resumes, copy some transcripts, do your summer class homework or you want a movie or some music (don't forget about those new CDs, they came in!), we're here!

New movies!! We got 'em!!

At some point today we will be putting out the new dvds. They are:

• Juno
• No Country for Old Men
• Sweeney Todd
• Michael Clayton
• La Vie en Rose
• Atonement

I think that's it. I'll add the rest when they get here. Remember, they go out for a week and you can take two at a time! What better way to celebrate the end of finals than to watch a FREE movie!

And, I think the CDs came in too!!!

Finals Week Library Tips

• We're open regular hours for finals week. (See "semester hours" box to the right of this post).
• We have wireless access upstairs and down, including the room on the other side of the computer area, L524.
• We're fully stocked on the MLA and APA booklets, and don't forget about citation machine if you get stuck on your works cited page.
• We buy a lot of those _____ Incredibly Easy! and _____ for Dummies books, so if you need a little clarification on something when you are studying, just search for it as a keyword in the library online catalog.
• If you need a place to study, check out this old post I wrote on different spots in the library.

Good luck!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Some of you are graduating in a few weeks, and you may be going on to a four year school, or heading off to work full time. Either way, you're probably thinking about what you want to do next. Since many people who come here are looking for a better job or a new career, the library purchases a lot of career books to help you figure out what you want to be.
Some titles include:
Opportunities in nursing careers /

ECO guide to careers that make a difference.

Real-resumes for aviation & travel jobs : including real resumes used to change careers and transfer skills to other industries /

To look for career books, type in "career" in the catalog search box, leave keyword as your "Search by:" term, and quick limit to the last 5 years. If you are here in the library, the career books are often on display on top of where we keep the magazines. Ask at the circulation or reference desk if you have questions. (And if you're wondering what being a librarian is like, it's great. I love my job.)

So your paper is due in an hour and you need...

A "scholarly," "professional" or "peer-reviewed" journal article- Go to the library homepage, click:
electronic databases
on campus access
a database (start with Academic OneFILE or Opposing Viewpoints, both are easy to use)
type in your keywords eg. "gun control" or "racism" or "dolphins"
check the boxes under the keywords that say "FULL TEXT" and "PEER REVIEWED"
search

A book- library homepage, click:
library catalog
type in your keyword
search

Have a question? Call 575-8244. Email jhammond@nvcc.commnet.edu. IM on the blog. If it's late at night, go to the library homepage and look for Library Online Tutorials, or click HELP on any of the databases. Opposing Viewpoints has a really good "Toolbox" feature that helps you organize a paper. Go to the Electronic Databases, choose Opposing Viewpoints, and click the little yellow wrench icon that says toolbox.

Good luck!

Learn to speak Librarian!

Completely free lessons!

The basics:

Library Online Catalog= Search for books
Electronic Databases= Search for articles
reQuest= all the library books in the whole state all at one time (WOW!)
Serials Solutions= Magazine/Journal Locator
Journals & Newspapers= Nothing. Don't look at that page.

Library Lingo:

Stacks= Bookshelves
Circulation Desk= Big desk on 4th floor where you check things out
Reference Desk= Big desk near computers where you ask questions
Serials= Magazines and Journals
Journals= Academic Magazines
Reserve= on hold

Database Lingo:

Databases= digital (online) collections of journals and magazines
Ebsco= a company that owns several databases
full-text= you can read/print it
citation= can't read/print it
PDF= scanned version of an article
html= digitized version of an article (may not have images/graphs)
download= save

Hope you enjoyed this beginning library lingo session! See you in the library soon!

Choosing a database for your research paper

When you get a paper assignment, your teacher might say to you, "Go to the library and get three sources for your paper from the electronic databases." When you go there, though, there is a pretty long list of databases, most of which have academic sounding names that don't tell you anything. For example, MasterFILE Premier or Academic OneFile. Huh? And how would you know what CINAHL means? (It means Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, in case you're wondering.)

Well, here's a brief explanation. The databases listed under "General Magazine and Journals" are all large collections of general subjects- they have some of everything. Some of them have a focus- like Opposing Viewpoints and SIRS Knowledge Source, which focus on hot button issues like global warming and gun control. Some are owned by the same company, like MasterFILE Premier and Magill On Literature, so you can search them at the same time.

The databases under "Health and Science" are just that- health and science journals. If you're writing a nursing or psychology paper, look under this heading. Some, like PsycINFO and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, are owned by the same company and you can search them at the same time too.

Then there are newspapers. So, if you want a new article from the New York Times or the Hartford Courant, it makes sense to go right there and search for it. The other databases might get it, but they might not have the most up to date articles. For example, Opposing Viewpoints gets current access to the New York Times, but as of 8:54 on April 15th, they only have articles from yesterday listed. The NYT database has today's paper already listed.

As you research and write papers, you get better at knowing which database to use. And you can ALWAYS ask your librarian (obviously).

Can you tell your friends?

I really want people to participate in the new CD selections (see next post for list). I made flyers for the library computers, and am waiting to hear if I can hang up posters around the school. So, in the meanwhile, could you pass it on?