Fedoras

Weren't those hats men wore back in the '30s something else? But what if you wanted to know more about that men's fashion, maybe were researching clothing for a theater production, or a history paper, where would you go?

One great resource would be Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages, an online encyclopedia we have. (Pictured here is band leader Count Basie.)

"Do you have the Journal of ....?"

A common question for us is, does the library have a certain journal, or magazine, or newspaper? We may well have, we have a very extensive collection, but, knowing where to look is the trick. It's easy though, just look at the middle of the library home page, where the search box is with the tabs for articles, books... Click on the tab for journals, and then type in the name of your journal (or magazine or newspaper, it works for them all.)

If the screen that comes up has your title, check the dates, and if our dates match what you need, follow through on the rest of the information. Many titles will be online, some in print only, some in both forms for different years. If this all gets a little confusing, it's understandable, do ask us for help.

Of course, if we simply don't have it, you can always get it throught our interlibrary loan service!

Europeana

This blogger enjoys skimming some international news sites, including that of the English language edition of Der Spiegel, the major German news magazine. Recently Der Spiegel reported on a major new project from the European Union. Called Europeana, the site, now in development, will showcase books, maps, paintings etc, highlighting Europe's rich cultural heritage

English-French? German? Irish? Latin...?

If you need an English to some other language dictionary, we have many in our reference collection in hardcopy, but we have many online too. Go to Oxford Reference Online and click on where it says Bilingual Dictionaries.

Google Scholar

Google has long been THE internet search engine, and for many good reasons. Its Google Scholar site is a fascinating venture into locating the sort of research that both college students and professors rely upon so heavily. Has Google Scholar overtaken resources like Academic Search and similar databases though, in the way Google has long since surpassed HotBot?

At this point we'd have to say the answer is absolutely not! Here is one simple example of where Google Scholar falls short. Let's say you need articles on agoraphobia for some psych research. If you go to Google Scholar, you find links to a number of articles, many of which are not full text, and the most recent are at least 10 years old. If you go to Academic Search though, our big general purpose article database, you find over 300 full text articles, the most recent from September 2008! This isn't even including such databases as PsychArticles and PsychInfo....

Birding, or birdwatching

If you don't know it, this area is an excellent region for bird watching. With Lake Ontario to our north, and a number of major migration routes thru here, for waterfowl, song birds, and birds of prey, there's lots to see. If you want to learn more, an excellent resource is the Rochester Birding Association.

The library subscribes to Cornell University's Birds of North America, and we have a number of bird guides and other books about birding in our collection.

Legal research?

Doing some research on court cases or laws? Our new legal research guide might be helpful when trying to track down that court case, or section of the US or state code. You can find the legal research guide and many more in our research guides section. A link to them is on the main library home page.

Fall Break

We hope you all enjoy a relaxing and enjoyable fall break weekend! You can check our hours here - just scroll down the page to see the fall break hours.

Diversity

Librarians Charlie Cowling and Lori Lampert are building a new research guide, this one focusing on information resources for diversity researchers. Your comments and suggestions welcome!

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act

If, in all the talk of the financial bailout plan, you became curious about what exactly the plan involves, look no further! It is now online at Thomas, the Library of Congress web site.

Brockport Strand

Brockport is celebrating 100 years of movies at the Brockport Strand and its predecessor in the same building, the Lyric. It opened in August 1908, making the Strand the second oldest movie theater in the country. Students from the college, Brockport faculty and staff, and local residents, are all invited to celebrate the theater the weekend of October 17-18. Click here for more information.

Project Muse

Utilizing special grant funds from the Provost, the English Department has purchased access to one of the premier journal databases in the Humanities.

This constantly growing collection, currently covering over 150 titles, has particular strengths in Literature, Foreign Languages, History, Music, Philosophy and Theatre. Try Project Muse and see for yourself!