Sarah Lawrence Library News

We're moving!

2008-06-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

The Sarah Lawrence Library News blog is moving to a new address! You can now find us at http://slclibrarynews.wordpress.com/. Please update your links!

We think this change will result in a cleaner design and better functionality on the back end for library staff. If you'd like to talk to us further about reasons for the switch, feel free to contact the reference staff at reference@slc.edu. We look forward to continuing to bring you news about goings-on in the library!

Happy end of the semester! (And the library's summer schedule.)

2008-05-16T13:05:00.001-04:00

The library wishes all of the Sarah Lawrence College community a wonderful summer. We hope that you had an enjoyable and profitable semester and we will see returning students in the fall.

The library will be closed on Friday, May 23rd from 11-12:30 to allow the staff to honor our graduate students by observing commencement ceremonies. Graduating students, please remember that you will need to clear your library account in order to graduate. Stop by the library or call x2474 if you have any questions about your library account. You can also check your account online by clicking here.

The library will be closed from Saturday, May 24th to Monday, May 26th for Memorial Day. Summer hours will begin on Tuesday, May 27th.

The summer schedule is:
Monday to Friday 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Closed Weekends and on the 4th of July

Due dates are upon us!

2008-05-12T09:33:00.000-04:00

All books checked out for the fall semester are due by 5pm this Friday, May 16th. Please remember to return all materials by then! Fines for overdue books accrue at the rate of twenty cents a day, so don't be late!

Citation Station!

2008-04-29T14:01:00.001-04:00

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!

2008-04-24T10:20:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-04-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

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

2008-04-21T13:51:00.000-04:00

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

2008-04-15T15:23:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-04-10T13:10:00.000-04:00

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?

2008-04-09T13:20:00.000-04:00

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

2008-04-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

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!

2008-04-08T09:18:00.000-04:00

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 ....

2008-04-03T12:13:00.001-04:00

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

2008-04-01T11:03:00.000-04:00

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.

Welcome back!

2008-03-31T13:53:00.000-04:00

With Spring Break behind us, conference work will be quickly upon us. Sign up for a research consultation with a member of the reference staff here. We can help you get kick-started for the end of the semester, or help solve that last little research problem that plagued you all break!

Library closed on Saturday, March 29th.

2008-03-28T15:49:00.001-04:00

Please note that due to the end of the college's Spring Break, the library will be closed on Saturday, March 29th. Regular hours will resume on Sunday, March 30th.

Enjoy your weekend!

WDI access issues resolved!

2008-03-27T10:47:00.000-04:00

For anyone experiencing difficulties yesterday with the World Development Indicators Online database (WDI), please note that full service has been restored. The interface may look slightly different, as the provider has updated content and site navigability, so it may take a little getting used to.

If you have any questions about how to use the WDI database, please contact a reference librarian for assistance at x2225 or by clicking here.

World Development Indicators Online access issues.

2008-03-26T12:57:00.001-04:00

For any of our researchers using the WDI (World Development Indicators Online), please be aware that access through our list of databases page has encountered a temporary problem.

In the meantime, please access this database through the library's catalog. You can look up the record by going into a basic search, and then searching for "WDI." The correct link is in the catalog record.

Spring Break hours

2008-03-13T13:19:00.002-04:00

Reference staff will be available and the library will be open during spring break. Our hours will be:

Friday, March 14: 8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday March 15: closed
Sunday, March 16: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Monday-Thursday, March 17-20: 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Friday, March 21: 8:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, March 22, 23: 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday-Thursday March 24-27: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Friday, March 28: 8:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 29: closed
Sunday, March 30: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Monday, March 31: regular hours resume

Interlibrary Loan forms are working!

2008-03-13T12:16:00.000-04:00

After a brief pause, the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) forms are once again functional. Please resume using these forms to submit ILL requests. We apologize for the disruption.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) online forms not working.

2008-03-11T12:23:00.001-04:00

Some of you may have noticed that the Interlibrary Loan forms on the library's homepage are not working at the moment. This is due to a server migration and we are working to fix the problem.

In the meantime, if you have an ILL request, please send Geoff Danisher an email at gdanishe@slc.edu. He will need to know the following information:

*Journal Title
*Volume and issue numbers, and the publication date
*Article Title
*Article author name
*Page on which the article starts.

The more information you have, the better!

You still have time!

2008-03-06T15:47:00.000-05:00

Spring break is fast upon us, and the reference staff knows you'll want to be larded down with full-text articles and interlibrary loan books wherever your travels may take you. Schedule a one-on-one consultation with Carrie, Carl, or Emily to jump start your research. Request a consultation using the handy link located here.

Search Britannica Online

2008-03-03T11:57:00.000-05:00

Looking for an online encyclopedia to check a quick fact or get a quick overview of a topic? Check out Britannica Online, a new addition to the library's databases. This full-text database has all the features you're used to from the well-worn print version--authoritative edited entries with clear source notes--as well as a slate of features that enhance the Web-based version. Check out searchable video clips, timelines, quotations, and an online world atlas.

As always, if you'd like help navigating this or any other resource, please stop by the Reference office, or schedule a research consultation with a Carl, Carrie, or Emily.

More new fiction! And an invitation to browse the fiction swap shelf.

2008-02-29T13:08:00.000-05:00

The library's new fiction shelf has been refreshed with all new selections from our newly acquired fiction titles. If you are looking for something to read, come to the library and see what new literature we have for your browsing pleasure.

Did you know about the library's book swap shelf in the periodicals room? Bring in old books that you've finished reading and let someone else discover them, while you pick up some new material. It's book recycling at its best!

The swap shelf is by the reshelving bin in the periodicals reading room.

And a heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the library survey. We appreciate your time and effort!

Only Two Days Left to take the Love Your Library Survey!

2008-02-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

There are only two days left to take the annual Love Your Library Survey! We value your feedback and use your comments to improve our services. The link below (the blue "2008 Library Survey") will take you directly to the library. The survey will end on February 28th and it is open to all members of the Sarah Lawrence College community.