News photos anyone?

Need a picture of someone featured in the news from the mid-1800s to date? Audio files from the 1920s to date? On the library web page click on Reference and then select AP Multimedia Archive. It has photos, audio files and more from over 150 years of press and wire service files. If you're on campus the public PCs have Realplayer to play the audio files, you'll need to download it at home if you don't already have it (it's free.) Pictured here is actor Don Knotts of Barney Fife fame, who recently passed away.

Using library sites from off campus

First off, yes, you should be able to use any and all library online resources from any PC connected to the internet. If you click on one that requires it, a box will pop up that will ask you for your username and password. This is the same username and password you use for your campus email, (yes, if you didn't know it you do have a Brockport email account - check it sometime!) Angel, to log onto campus PCs and to print on campus. Once you enter it the system checks your information and sends you on to Academic Search or whatever you were selecting.
Once in awhile people have problems. The log in popup has information about what to do in the event of a problem. Please note too that if you are at a site that has an IT "firewall", like a school or company, you may be blocked from accessing our sites. If you feel comfortable with it, you could ask the IT people there to "open a port" for this. If you're at home and have a firewall, you might want to turn it off while using our sites. As always, if you'd like to feel free to call us at 395-2760, IM us at drakeref, or email us at adrake@brockport.edu.

More library director candidates this week!

Yes, there's several more candidates coming in this week. The next open meeting for students will be tomorrow, Tuesday 2/28, @10am in the library cafe. Please do stop by if you can, we value your participation.

Inter-library loan

We don't have a book you need, or an article, or other item? Request it through our inter-library loan service! There's a link to the service right off our home page. We can often get books for you in a few days or less, articles in a week, maybe less. There's no fee for the service, and it isn't asking a special favor, this is a routine service that we are very glad to have you make use of. If it turns out to be a little hard to get the item, or there's some other problem, we'll contact you to work it out. If you haven't made such a request before, just click on the "new user" link to set up your account, and then you can make and track your requests.

"Notable Last Facts"

A close friend of mine writes a blog titled "From the Reference Desk," and in a posting there today he comments on an interesting reference book called Notable Last Facts. Curiously enough, Drake Library has this title as well, REF AG105.B773. ;-)

Library blogs?

Honestly, this isn't some eccentric thing your library is doing by having a blog! Many libraries are doing it, and some have been for years. Here's an article from Library Journal this past fall about library blogs.

library director search

We're currently interviewing candidates for the position of library director. The schedules for the open meetings have been distributed in emails and are posted in the library. Do stop by for one - or more - of these if you get the chance. We welcome your input!

NY Times Historical

One fascinating newspaper resource we have online is the NY Times Historical site, which is the entire paper, all articles, editorials, ads etc., from 1851-2001. It's an excellent source for "primary documents," and many other informational needs. An example of how far back it goes: there's an article from 1851 about the patent battle between local Brockport reaper manufacturers Seymour & Morgan, and their arch rival McCormick!
At the library web page, click on Finding Articles, then on N in the A-Z list, to find the link for this NY Times Historical site.

Need a little help?

Need a little help with that big paper or project? In addition to asking at the reference desk, IM'ing us (at drakeref) or calling us (395-2760) you are welcome to use our research consultation form to contact us. One of us will email you back or set up a time to meet with you. Let us know what your research is, how far you've gotten, what you still don't have...

"Filecity"

When you log onto a PC in the library, or any lab on campus, you are automatically connected to your own personal 250mg folder. You see the "My Home Directory" icon on the desktop, and you can save files to that folder. Before, you could only access that folder from a lab PC on campus. Now however, thanks to the campus IT staff, you can access that folder from any PC anywhere by going to filecity.brockport.edu. This is a convenient site for saving files - just bear in mind that it is NOT backed up, so if you have something of great importance, save it somewhere else too! Email it to yourself, save to a CD or jumpdrive...

TVs on the move

We have moved a couple of TV/VCR units from downstairs to the farther end of the main floor (going away from the cafe.) These are for the convenience of those of you needing to view one of the various telecourses held at the reserve desk on the main floor.

Ultimate weather site

Want to know the weather? Try the National Weather Service site. Great story on today's massive nor'easter - 26.9" of snow in Central Park!

Country information

Need info on a country? Go online to our webpage, and click on the Reference link. Select FactsonFile from over on the right. When you get there, look over on the right, and click on the link for country profiles. Very helpful overviews of countries, a map you can view and download, good basic history, current situation, geography, statistics and more. In our print reference collection we have a more in depth source, Europa World Year Book, REF JN1 .E85. We have it from 1959-date, so it is not only a good source for current in depth articles on countries, but has historical depth as well...

An "Information or Learning Commons," what is it?

Here at Brockport's Drake Library we are working to build an Information or Learning Commons. What is it? It really is just combining resources and research opportunities all together in one convenient location. Both traditional library "reference" help, e.g. "Where can I get articles on...," IT help, e.g. "How do I burn a CD..." are available, as well as both traditional library print resources, and modern online resources, as well as many, many PCs which have all available campus lab software. To this we will be adding in the near term future digital video editing workstations, featuring high end PCs and Macs. We will add more services and resources as we go along. So you can come in, get a coffee, find and check out books, get help locating articles, write up your paper or PowerPoint, edit that video clip you downloaded, all in one comfortable and supportive location!

Where is that journal? newspaper? magazine?

Check at our web page. Maybe what you want is online: click on the "What journals are full text" link. It actually includes not only journals, but magazines and newspapers too. Search by title, "journal of whatever..." and if it's online you'll see it, with the dates and a link to get it. If it's not online, try the link to the library catalog to see if we have it here in the building. In the catalog change the search to "Title begins with..."

Dictionaries and encyclopedias online!

Reference materials, like magazines, journals and newspapers, are rapidly moving online. Click on the "Reference" link on our webpage. Use the OED (Oxford English Dictionary,) the premier English dictionary, to look up a word. Researching a current controversy, like domestic violence or abortion? Look at CQ Researcher and Opposing Viewpoints. Need a general encyclopedia? Click on the link for Encyclopedia Brittanica! Choose the Gale Virtual Reference for some excellent subject encyclopedias, like the 10 volume Dictionary of American History...

Why gasoline costs what it does...

The federal government among other activities collects and publishes a huge amount of information. Drake Library is a depository for some of that information, and our documents librarian has a web page about it. Moreover, quite a lot of the U.S. government's information is online nowadays, and is not too hard to locate: try an "advanced" search in google, where you can "limit" your search to only ".gov" domain sites. I did this recently while looking for something for a professor, and ran across the following "primer" on why gasoline costs what it does. It doesn't make paying for your gas any easier, but at least you know why it costs so much!

New Catalog!

The library has a new catalog, from an Israeli company called Aleph. All the SUNY libraries are gradually shifting over to this catalog. It's a little rough around the edges yet, but overall shows much promise. Please do ask us if you have any questions or comments.