Database Trial – Art Museum Image Gallery

The library is providing a trial of a NEW database, H.W. Wilson’s Art Museum Image Gallery.

"Cypresses" by Vincent van Gogh

Art Museum Image Gallery is a digital resource of art images and related multimedia gathered from the collections of distinguished museums around the world, encompassing over 160,000 superior quality images with a full bibliographic record. Many include curatorial text, provenance data, detail or multiple views for many images, and related multimedia where available. The database spans artistic creation from 3000 B.C. to the present, with art from the cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, including Native American and Meso-American peoples, and includes coverage of both fine and decorative art: painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, textiles, costumes, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, glass, books and manuscripts, archaeological finds, and more.

Access Art Museum Image Gallery Here

User ID: MASSD0030
Password: UNMA070474

The trial expires on February 28th, so explore the database and let your librarians know what you think in the comments section of this post, or email us!

JD Salinger and Howard Zinn

The world lost two major authors this week. Both JD Salinger and Howard Zinn passed away, leaving great legacies in both the literature and history fields.

JD Salinger was best know for his novel The Catcher in the Rye. Published in 1951 The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden Caulfield in the days following his expulsion from prep school. Written in a slangy vernacular voice, the novel has been widely popular with teenagers who emphasize with the novels themes of alienation from and distrust of the outside world.

Howard Zinn was a historian, teacher, activist, author and playwright. Best know for his book A People’s History of the United States 1492 – Present, Zinn focused on often ignored events of oppressed people, regardless of race or gender.

Need more information? The New York Times published an in-depth tribute and obituary of JD Salinger. You may find more information about JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye and Salinger’s other works in our Literature Resource Center database. You can read Howard Zinn’s obituary in the New York Times or visit Howard Zinn’s website to read more about his work, his activism and his books.

We set up a book display of both Salinger’s and Zinn’s books near the reference desk. Check them out!

Changes afoot!

Over the break we spent some time rearranging sections of the library to provide better access to some resources and give you more study space.

Our collection of children’s literature has moved down the hall on the 3rd floor to where our microfilm collection used to be. We’ve added some chairs as well to make this area more conducive to browsing.

The microfilm cabinets are now on the second floor at the end of the periodical shelves. (Turn left from the top of the stairs and follow to the end.) We’ve also placed more tables and chairs in this area for additional quiet study on the 2nd floor.

The children's collection on the 3rd floor

Light, bright, and where microfilm used to be!

Microfilm is now on the 2nd floor

More quiet spaces to study!

Welcome back!

Welcome back for the Spring term! We hope you had a great winter break and are ready for another semester at FSC!

The beginning of term gives us a good opportunity for a reminder of some of the great services the library offers:

Interlibrary Loan – FSC doesn’t have the book or full-text article you’re looking for? We partner with libraries across the state (and sometimes further) to share collections so you have access to millions and millions of resources. Simply fill out an interlibrary loan form, and we can usually get articles in a few days, and books within two weeks.

Article Databases – Your professors are asking for scholarly resources, or academic journals. Where to find these? We subscribe to over 100 databases that index thousands of journals, magazines and newspapers. Some are broad (like Academic Search Premier) and some are subject specific (like SPORTDiscus). Not sure where to start? Ask a librarian!

Subject Study Guides – Your librarians have compiled useful study guides for most majors. These guides include links to FSC article databases, web links, reference book call numbers, and other important information. These guides are a great place to start research in any subject.

Librarians! – Perhaps your best resource is the person behind the desk! Not sure where to start your research? How to cite your sources? What database to use? Where to find reliable statistics? ASK US! Reference librarians are on duty most hours the library is open, and can answer questions in person, over the phone, through email, or instant message. When in doubt, ask a librarian!

Have a great term!

Extended Hours and Late Night Reference!

It’s the home stretch before finals – the library and your librarians are here to help with extended hours and late night reference!

EXTENDED HOURS Sunday Dec. 6 – Thursday Dec. 17

• Sundays: 1PM to Midnight
• Monday-Thursday: 8AM to Midnight
• Fri. 12/11 : 8AM to 10PM
• Sat. 12/12: Noon to 10PM

Your librarians will also be available through Meebo chat for Late Night Reference until 11 PM Mon 12/7 – Thurs 12/10, to get you through your last push for classes!

Database of the Week – Daily Life America

Part of our series of posts on databases you might not know!

Daily Life America is a searchable, and ever-expanding website that spotlights the day-to-day lives of average Americans, past and present. A virtual library of thousands of diverse sources: award-winning reference works, primary documents, illustrations, maps. This is not a journal database but does provide full-text essays. Users can browse by subject, time period, region, or title, Also available is the Teacher Resources section featuring lesson plans and curriculum correlations.

This is an excellent resource for primary sources and history, as well as drama, literature, sociology, and education.

Some news and thoughts on Wikipedia

Wikipedia seems to be suffering some growing pains. According to a study cited by the BBC, in its ongoing efforts to become more authoritative, Wikipedia lost approximately 49,000 editors in the first quarter of 2009. BBC columnist Rory Cellan-Jones shares his thoughts on why that might be.  Some interesting observations from his op-ed (the comments on this op-ed also bring up some lively points for debate):

“One theory is that the whole project has simply lost its early innocence, and that’s caused editors to drift away. It was incredibly easy in the early years to plunge in and write a new entry – or more likely edit an existing one.“

“But gradually the utopian idea of a worldwide community of unpaid enthusiasts creating an invaluable resource, making the world’s information available freely to anyone with an internet connection, has had to confront a nasty reality – the web is an argumentative place where a few noisy and sometimes malicious folks can spoil things for everyone. Repeated vandalism of controversial entries…has led the Wikimedia Foundation gradually to introduce more and more rules about the way articles are edited. It’s clear some early enthusiasts have been put off by the increasing bureaucracy surrounding the project.“

And from the comments: “The problem is that people have lost sight of what Wikipedia was. There’s too much effort in trying to make it into a “proper” encyclopedia. Wikipedia is a project that could document a huge amount of information, yet they keep coming up with new ways to restrict what is covered.“

Want to know more about why you can’t cite Wikipedia in your research even though it often has good info? Read our earlier blog post here!

Hours for Thanksgiving week

The library will be closed several days this week for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Hours for this week are:

* Wed 11/25: 8AM – 5PM
* Thu 11/26: Closed
* Fri 11/27: 8AM – 5PM
* Sat 11/28: Closed
* Sun 11/29: 1-11PM

Happy Thanksgiving!

Database of the Week – Issues and Controversies

The library subscribes to over 100 different databases indexing and providing content in all disciplines – from law to health to psychology to communications. Most FSC students are familiar with Academic Search Premier, one of the largest inter-disciplinary databases. BUT we’re also going to start a new weekly feature on this blog, highlighting one of our other databases with which students and faculty might not be as familiar.

This week: Issues and Controversies

Need to write a “position” paper, arguing for or against a particular issue? Issues and Controversies helps researchers understand the crucial issues we face today, exploring more than 800 hot topics in business, politics, government, education, and popular culture. Updated weekly, with links to a 12-year archive, Issues and Controversies offers in-depth articles made to inspire thought-provoking debates.

This database is GREAT for research papers and debate prep!

The History of Veterans Day

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities. This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…“

The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

(Info from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)

Need information on the military? Military history is shelved by region and period of history in D-F, and military science books are shelved in the U’s on the 4th floor. You can also search our database, Military and Government Collection, which provides news and information from all branches of the U.S. military and government.