Patrons, staff, and students are welcome to attend the following training sessions in April for this database. One training session is on Thursday, April 1st at 11am Central Time and a later session is scheduled for Thursday, April 29th at 6pm Central Time. To register send an email to librarytraining@morningstar.com.
Kerry Falloon
Acquisitions Librarian
Academic Earth, a website featuring free video courses from leading universities, is being called the Hulu for education.
The site offers over 1,500 video lectures from Yale, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Princeton that can be browsed by subject, university, or instructor through a user-friendly interface.
Some popular courses/lectures are:
Game Theory by Yale’s Benjamin Polak
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Harvard’s Michael Sandel
The New Testemant as History by Yale’s Dale B. Martin
Physics I: Classical Mechanics by M.I.T.’s Walter Lewin
Non-violence: From Gandhi to Martin Luther King by Berkely’s Michael Nagler
Check out many more at: http://academicearth.org/
Daisy DeCoster, Assistant Librarian (Reference)
The O’Toole Library has joined with BetterWorldBooks.com to sell it’s books ONLINE! Please go to the Side-Walk Sale Section of BetterWorldBooks or follow the link below. Any book that you buy off Saint Peter’s page, a portion of the proceeds will go back to the library and towards a non-for profit charity. Also, please visit both libraries and ask for our in-house books for sale sections!
Kerry Falloon, Acquisitions Librarian
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/St-Peters-College-OToole-Library-C1000.aspx?SuffixId=15789
Welcome back to the Spring 2010 semester! The Libraries have added three new databases MorningStar Investment Research Center, Colombia Granger’s World of Poetry and Oxford Biblical Studies to further assist in your access to information and research. We have also added a library tool called Linksource which will provide direct item level access to full text articles or direct patrons to our copy in print or to Interlibrary Loan. It can also interact with Refworks, your personal citation management tool. Twenty-five streaming videos for individual patron or classroom use across all areas have also been added. Access is available now through the libraries database page via FMG Videos. Our subscription to Ebrary has also increased. We now have access to over 3,800 interdisciplinary titles and own 50 new E-book titles in the area of nursing and medicine. In addition to the new physical changes in the library, please enjoy these new virtual electronic collections and tools!
Kerry Falloon, Acquisitions Librarian
With spring upon us, we in the SPC libraries find renewal within the walls of the O’Toole Library. During intersession, a considerable amount of planning and team effort was expended to remake the first floor entry space inside the library. We’ve expanded the Pavo Perk coffee bar seating area, re-orientated our reference service desk, and expanded space to chat and relax inside the library.
We also significantly changed the location and space for computer access. For those students and faculty returning to the campus, you’ll find all of the computers and printers have been moved and consolidated. I invite everyone to come in and let us show you what we’ve been cooking while you’ve been away. It should be noted that none of these positive changes would have happened without partnerships, so I am thankful to facilities and ITS and blessed to have the wonderful O’Toole and ECC library staff who support these initiatives.
The goal is to open up additional floor space inside the main floor of the O’Toole library for research, collaboration and scholar services. Making this floor the nexus for librarian, information and circulation services support.
The reorientation of the space extends the view into our group study rooms, so if you have a group of four or more, you’ll be able to see if a room is available and then reserve it at the circulation desk. We hope to expand this service in the coming semesters in a cost efficient manner, to better meet your group study needs.
Looking back now and upon reflection, the use of the library as a 24-hour space to study for finals in the fall semester was very much appreciated by the students and faculty. In fact, all of the upcoming graduating classes provided refreshments during the late hours, truly turning an administrative idea into a holistic team and campus effort.
The library’s draft 2010-2015 strategic plan is in its third phase. With the completion of the final part, the tactical aspects of the plan will be forthcoming and we will share the document with the campus community and administration. We’ll be looking for input and improvements prior to accepting the plan as our guiding light for future initiatives.
All of us in the libraries wish you a successful and prosperous spring term.
Cordially,
David I. Orenstein, MLS, MS, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Library and Information Services
Saint Peter’s College
As much as you need the libraries for research and knowledge services support, we need to hear from you to ensure that we’re providing the best services and collections at both campus locations and online. I believe that your feedback is critical and through external partnership and internal planning, the libraries can be the first place you turn to for all your research, instructional and information service needs.
We began an aggressive planning process this semester which started with the formation of strategic planning groups to guide us through the next five years. In addition, we’ve had our first library advisory group meeting. This focus group is made up of students, staff, faculty and library staff and has already given us important feedback for improving services.
Last week, the libraries placed a survey on our homepage and on Facebook.com, asking for your input so that we can build collections and services that are relevant to you, and so that we do not plan in a vacuum. To date almost one hundred faculty, students and staff have responded, indicating several important trends, including:
- 47% of students answering the survey are undergraduate students, 5% graduate level
- 40% of students who replied to the survey are full-time students; 35% are day students.
- 95% of respondents are from the Jersey City campus
- 81% of respondents use the library at least once a month, and 54% visit the library at least once a week
Based on the survey results so far, here is what people are doing in the library in order of popular response:
- Borrowing books
- Using the databases (Research)
- Studying by oneself (or in groups)
- Asking reference questions
- Surfing the web (No research)
Looking at users want from the libraries is important for budget and planning purposes, the survey results so far indicate:
- Respondents want more computers
- They want longer service hours
- More databases
- Group study rooms
- Greater bibliographic instructional classes
- Up-to-date and diverse collections
This survey will close in two weeks. At that time, the library staff and I will both fully analyze and use the data as an additional platform for planning. We will do other surveys to capture more data.
I urge you to have a voice in the library’s planning process. After all, we are here for you and really want to be a partner in your academic success.
Warmest Regards,
David Orenstein, MLS, MS, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Library and Information Services
Saint Peter’s College
A library that stores all or part of its collection in digital formats. Most of a libray’s digital content is integrated, stored and searchable through our “electronic resources” also know as databases. Databases provide ease of access, efficiency, expansive content, multiple users at the same time, and remote access outside of the physical library. The library pays an annual subscription to access these resources, essentially “leasing” the content for as long as the subscription lasts. When we stop the subscription, we lose access to the content. Saint Peter’s College Libraries spends almost $200,000 a year subscribing to databases. Some databases are now giving archival rights to the content so we own the content even after the subscription might end. A current dilemma in libraries is “ownership” of knowledge versus “renting” knowledge . Large research universities are digitizing their own content and also sharing it with others (e.g, PORTICO) so that this content is “owned” forever. Digitization is often a very expensive undertaking which is why colleges and universities often undertake these projects together (e.g. NJ Digital Highway) or by using a commerical company like Google.
The Google Books Library Project is a huge world-wide digitalization project originally undertaken with the leading research libraries throughout the world (Harvard, Columbia, NYPL, Oxford). The original project (scan and index millions of books) was to preserve non-copyrighted “scholarly treasures” for posterity and for others to access this content across the globe. The Google Book Search Copyright Class Action Lawsuit by the Authors Guild Inc., Association of American Publishers, Inc., et. al. against Goggle was for scanning ”in-copyright but out of print books.” Google’s defense was the “fair use” limitation on copyrighted materials(www.book.google.com). Some other well-known book digitization projects- Project Guttenberg’s thirty year 30,000 free books project (http://www.gutenberg.org) and the British Library’s Turning the Pages internal digitization project (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html). An interesting article about one library’s switch to using ”digital” e-books using Kindle. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-26-kindle-school-library_N.htm
Kerry A. Falloon, Collection Development/ Acquisitions Librarian
In the area of electronic resources, we have added new databases to further meet the academic and research needs of the college community. Some new resources to be aware of on the library’s database page are PQ Central, Project Muse, and CQ Researcher. In the near future we will be adding Opposing Viewpoints as well. We also will have immediate access to Science Directs articles, primarily for faculty research, dating back to 1823. To request an article, please contact our librarians. To access these databases, please use the following link. http://www.spc.edu/pages/1714.asp.
ProQuest Central: Interdisciplinary database with over 12,500 journal titles, with at least 9,700 in full text. It is a central resource for researchers in over 160 subject areas at all levels in Business and Economics, Health and Medical, News and World Affairs, Science, Education, Technology, Humanities, Social Sciences, Psychology, Literature, Law, and Women’s Studies
Project Muse: This interdisciplinary database contains the most reliable source of titles from many of the world’s leading university presses and scholarly societies, journals with critically acclaimed articles by the most respected scholars in their fields. It is collection of high quality, peer reviewed journals with continued growth by new titles added selectively annually.
CQ Researcher: CQ Researcher offers in-depth, non-biased coverage of today’s most important issues; social, economic, political, and environmental. Each report is divided into specific sections to guide research. The researcher can go directly to the section they need or can read the entire report on a single topic.
Opposing Viewpoints: A premier full-text resource covering current and controversial social issues. It provides access to pro and con viewpoint articles, reference materials, magazines, newspapers, primary sources, statistics, and multimedia on various issues, from Terrorism to Stem Cell Research.
Oxford English Dictionary
It is a guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million English words, both present and past. In this sense, it is a historical dictionary, in which the various groupings of senses are dealt with in chronological order according to the usage of words through quotation evidence. Therefore, the entry structure is very different from that of a dictionary of current English, in which only present-day senses are covered, and in which the most common meanings or senses are described first.
Kerry A. Falloon, MA, MLIS, Ed.S
Collection Development/ Acquisitions
Saint Peter’s College Libraries
As many of you know, the Saint Peter’s College Libraries are staffed by professionals with a long tradition of service to the students, faculty and institution. Freshman may not be aware that the libraries are comprised of two campus departments. This includes library facilities on both the Jersey City and Englewood Cliffs campuses. Our knowledge services includes both traditional information access such as telephone and in-person reference; bibliographic instruction; event programming and collection development as well as a host of digital offerings including access to dozens of databases
Newer initiatives within the library include the use of the Internet as a delivery tool of knowledge services, as well as a portal to electronic collections and other research support. The library is digitizing all its forms so that they are available 24hrs a day; these forms include requests for books, requests for instructional classes, and Inter-library loan requests. Additionally, the library now has a site on Facebook.com, to offer other ways to get to the library’s website; finally, the libraries are also growing their e-book collections, as so many of us use laptops, netbooks and other mobile devices to connect to their classes and research online via the Internet.
As part of ongoing work to support research and ensure information access, the libraries are staffed on both campuses with a cadre of librarian and para-professionals, all dedicated to your success. Additionally, the College’s archives are located in the O’Toole library. The archives hold wonderful collections related to the College’s history, so if you’re a Dan Brown fan, you may want to explore the documents, photos and other items located in its collections. Who knows what mysteries you can uncover and solve?
If you’re not aware, the library staff is really integrated into campus life. We serve on College-wide committees, including Faculty Senate, Curriculum committee, University Status, ITS, the Chairs group, the Green Committee and other taskforces and working groups to support retention, assessment and the College’s strategic mission and goals. The person who you at the reference desk is so much more than just a guide to finding information, although that is their core mission, they are a valued member of the College working in and outside of the library to support your academic accomplishments.
Let’s also not forget Pavo Perk, the café located in the front of the library. Come on in for a cup of coffee or tea, have a snack, or just relax and enjoy a conversation with friends. The cafe opens at 10:30am and closes late into the evening.
Hoping your semester is off to a good start.
Regards,
David Orenstein, MLS, MS, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Library and Information Services
Saint Peter’s College
20 Years After the Berlin Wall. A New Wall in the O’Toole Library
November 9th, 2009November 9, 1989 will be remembered in history as the day when Communist East Germany began the transition to democracy by dismantling the Berlin Wall. Fast forward to today, and you find a new wall being erected in the O’Toole library. However, there is a big difference between then and now. While walls serve to keep people apart, and limit communication, access to information and the sharing of ideas, the O’Toole Library’s wall will encourage all of those universal collaborative ideals.
When the O’Toole Library was built in 1967, the idea of groups of students studying together was a foreign concept. There are currently no group study rooms in the library. But today’s SPC students want and need to connect for assignments. Now when students do get together in small groups in the library, they are huddling over small tables, or eking out ad hoc spaces all over the building. This means students don’t have privacy and it also means that the noise level in the library goes up, which can disturb others.
We in the library identified this problem and with the support of the College administration have built two new group study rooms on the first floor of the library. The library is taking a staff room and is remodeling it into two group study rooms. Construction will be completed before finals and each room will have enough space to comfortably seat six to eight people. In addition to the seating, each room will have a large dry-erase board, and a DVD/VHS/TV viewing area.
The group study rooms will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. They are to be booked at the Circulation desk. You and your group can have one of the rooms for up to two hours at a time, but please make sure you have a minimum of four individuals in your group prior to booking.
Should walls need to be built in the future, let’s make sure they’re the kind that bring people together and not keep them apart. While that may seem like an irony, please come and book one of the new study rooms and you’ll know exactly what it means.
If we rethink library space, communication, and how people use modern academic libraries, we can build services, collections and spaces for the future that meet your needs and go beyond your expectations.
Happy Collaboration!
Warmest Regards,
David Orenstein, MLS, MS, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Library and Information Services
Saint Peter’s College
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