Emmanuel d'AlzonLibraryLink
The
Newsletter of the Emmanuel d'Alzon Library
Assumption College,Worcester, Massachusetts
Vol. 5 No.1
Spring 2001
D’Alzon Arts Series
RUSSIAN ART: Icons & More
Mar.12-Apr. 13
The fascinating exhibition on Russian iconography and
art opened with a talk by Father Donat Lamothe, (left) College Archivist,
on March 12th. Fr. Donat
gave an informative presentation on the techniques used in iconography that
have evolved throughout history. As
Future
D'Alzon Arts Exhibitions:
Senior Seminar Artworks
April 23-May 18 (Please note the change of dates)
NOW AVAILABLE: BIOGRAPHY RESOURCE CENTER
By Larry Spongberg
Thanks to the Central Massachusetts Regional Library
System, the Assumption Community has access to a new database called Biography
Resource Center. This resource by
Gale provides access to information on more than 185,000 people, taken from
various databases produced by Gale, as well as full-text articles from almost
250 periodicals. In addition to searching
by the name of a person, searching can be done by year of birth and/or death,
nationality, occupation, or other criteria. To access Biography Resource Center
from on campus, go to the library home page and:
Follow the directions on the main search screen. The online instructions are quite intuitive.
From the Director's Desk
Dawn Thistle
En
garde,
Question Marquis!
"Oui! I challenge
you to a duel! Prove that you can
deliver on all your promises by demonstrating that Assumption College students
can indeed “skip all of the tedious working” when they are writing research
papers!"
Questia
is a new product that is being marketed aggressively to Assumption students.
Advertisements have appeared in at least the last two issues of Le
Provocateur. In these ads, the Question Marquis brags (in a “silly French
accent”) that students can write better papers, faster, with Questia. Questia is also sending brochures to librarians
telling us that Questia is “designed to make research and writing papers less
time-consuming and more productive.”
The
concept is an interesting—even good—one.
Questia has loaded the full text of 50,000 “notable” books into its
database and plans to make 250,000 titles available in the next three years. These books, “widely-cited and widely-held,”
have been selected by a staff of professional librarians. The selection philosophy is that “new scholars
benefit greatly from convenient access to an extensive collection of enduring
intellectual value. As such, the Questia
collection is not intended to provide comprehensive support for all types
of research, but instead, to provide substantial coverage of high quality
information for most undergraduate liberal arts course assignments." So far, so good.
Students can search the full-text by selecting a subject area, then entering search terms. They can read the book or search for relevant passages that can be highlighted and inserted into their research paper. A footnote is then automatically generated and added in one of several citation styles. If they want to take notes, they can add a "margin note" to their work folder. When the research is complete, Questia will compile a complete bibliography. Many Questia books are also linked to each other by their footnotes, allowing researchers to move among related titles.
So
what’s the down side of this new service? Maybe there isn’t one. However, libraries and institutions cannot
subscribe to this database or acquire a site license. It is only being marketed to students. They can purchase access for a couple of days ($14.95), by the month
($19.95) or by the year ($149.95). Should
we be concerned if they are unable to find books that are appropriate for
their particular projects? Caveat
emptor, after all. As with any online
research tool, students first must be able to formulate a thesis and research
strategy, and be able to evaluate the appropriateness of the information they
find. We, faculty and librarians,
must still help many students with these parts of the research process.
When
speaking to groups of librarians, Troy Williams, Founder, Director, President
& CEO, points out that students will still want to access physical books.
This is either because they are referenced by Questia books, but not included
in the database, or because downloading the e-books they want is difficult
(a concession made to the publishers). He insists that Questia will encourage
students to make greater use of the library, rather than less. I hope he is right. But if he is right, then shouldn’t we encourage students just to start at the
library— where access to the same information doesn’t cost them anything (beyond
their tuition)? On the other hand,
they may find everything they need on Questia, much more conveniently.
Saving time may indeed be worth the money—depending on the quality
of the work they turn in to their professors.
Searches
for the word "Questia" on different electronic mailing lists done
by librarians Blake Carver (editor, Librarian
and Information Science News) and Steven Bell (Philadelphia University)
have turned up several messages—complete with typos—purportedly written by
a student to groups of other students urging them to sign up for the free
Questia trial:
Visit this website. My professor recommended it as a great tool for online research
for liberal arts subjects. Sign up
for free month trial. http://www.questia.com/trial/major/index.html”
“I've been trying to find an online research website
that will help me do research from home, but I had not been able to find a
site that had books online. Last week I heard of Questia. From what I see,
they have what I'm looking for. Go to this website and signt up for a free
trail http://www.questia.com/trial/major/index.html. They let you try it out
at no charge for one month. Plus they don't require credit card info so I
don't feel like they are trying to rip me off or hope I forget to unsubscribe.”
Bell
then found the following message:
Dawn Thistle
By Janice A. Wilbur
In the month of January additional network access was
put into the library. If you bring
your laptop to the library you will be able to “plug “ into the network from
9 additional areas within the library. Network
plugs are available on the second and third floors at the center of both the
front and back facing walls, with an additional connection on the center of
the wall facing out toward Emmanuel house. On the first floor there are network drops in the corner next to
the back stairway (where Bibliographic instruction sessions are held) and
on the right hand column just in back of the Online Catalog computers. There
is also an additional network connection on the first floor center of the
wall facing Emmanuel House. Each
area has 2 network outlets for you to plug in your Ethernet cable.
OFF
CAMPUS ACCESS:
LET RPA SHOW
YOU THE WAY
By
Larry Spongberg
A new system for off campus access to many of our library
databases is now available. If you
have struggled with entering various pass codes, you will be relieved to know
that a much simpler method now exists, called Remote Patron Authentication,
or RPA.
To use RPA, you need a valid ID that has been entered
into our library database. If you
still have an ID that does not have the barcode numbers printed at the bottom
of the card, the Department of Public Safety will exchange the old ID (without
charge) for a new one. After that
has been done, be sure to stop by the library so that our staff can enter
the new bar code into the library database.
The RPA product recognizes the barcode that the library has on file
only.
After your ID has been entered at the Circulation desk, use the following steps: Access the Assumption College home page at http://www.assumption.edu
At
this point, a column of links to available databases should appear on the
left side of the screen. RPA works best with NETSCAPE or Internet Explorer.
Please
contact the library @ 767-7273 if you have any problems using this service.
Good luck with your research!
The library experienced problems with the printer used by most of the public computers because some transparencies were placed in the paper tray and melted inside the printer. Laser printers and transparencies don’t mix. DISCOVERY MADE!! You CAN’T put anything but paper into the paper tray!
The printer was down for the remainder of the day and half of the following day until a service company could make the repair. This inconvenienced EVERYONE! Please ask a librarian before putting ANY thing into the paper tray in ANY printer so that we can avoid this in the future.
Library Usage Surveys
Many thanks to the faculty
and students who have filled out our Library Usage Surveys over the last few
weeks! We have begun to go through
them and expect to find some very interesting and helpful results. Once they have been analyzed, we will publish
the survey results in this Newsletter.
Faculty Publication List
The Library maintains the web-based list of
Faculty Publications. Are your publications
listed there? Or have you published a book or article in the past year that
needs to be added to your list? If
so, please e-mail your publications to Dawn Thistle at dthistle@assumption.edu. For consistency's sake we do not include book
reviews or conference papers, but focus instead on books and journal articles. To
see the list, simply go to:
Help us celebrate National Library Week!
Libraries
have access to information that you wouldn’t have dreamed possible just
a few years ago. During National
Library Week, April 1 – April 7,
the Library Reference staff is planning to do 45 minute demonstrations of
the following services to the Assumption Community.
Learn more about the many databases and services that the Library
offers. Pick up a few goodies and check out some of our new books, too.
Net Library and Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe -- Monday–Thursday@
10:30 a.m.
FirstSearch and Infotrac Databases -- Monday–Thursday
@ 2:30 p.m.
Find
books, articles, and web sites in seconds through First Search. Learn how to locate materials in the Worcester
area quickly.
Faculty Friday -- Friday, April 6th. Faculty members may
come to the library for an individualized session or may make an appointment
with a Reference librarian to come to their offices. Book a session for
a department, small group or yourself. Please contact the Reference office
@ X7273 to make arrangements.
Please call 767-7273 or email library@assumption.edu if you have any questions. We hope you can join us.
THE BALLAD OF EARL THE SQUIRREL
By Larry “the Librarian” Spongberg
(To the tune of “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”,heme song of the Beverly Hillbillies television show)
One
day, he came in to give d”Alzon a whirl.
He came into the library looking for some food,
And when the
staff saw him, they had thoughts that were crude.
(But we didn’t say them…We’ve been good.)
Earl
was getting hungry so he made use of his brains.
Now, Julie’s cache of birdseed is missing a few grains.
Earl scurries ‘round the back hall seeking a place to hide,
And hang if I know how to get him outside.
(Stay tuned…A happy ending coming up)
Maintenance
came in and put some food into a cage.
Before long, Earl got caught. He went
into a rage.
Maintenance took him outside, so they could let him go.
Now Earl spends his days running out in the snow.
(So long, Earl…Don’t you come back now, hear!)
With
thanks to Andy Clark for thinking of “Earl” as the name for the squirrel.
Written
March 13, 2001. Third stanza added,
March 14, after the Maintenance Department’s
capture of Earl on the previous afternoon.
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Happy Easter
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