Holiday Shutdown

We close today at 4:30, and will be closed the next two weeks for the campus holiday shutdown. We certainly wish you all a pleasant and relaxing break, and look forward to seeing some of you when we reopen for the winter session on January 4th.

In the meantime do bear in mind that all our online databases will be available even during the shutdown When you come back, maybe we could arrange a tug of war, like in this 1963 picture :-)

Tour the library

The college has a great new virtual tour, which includes a nice segment on the library. Have a look if you get a chance!

Library & Book lover themed gift ideas

From "The Librarian in Black," a popular blog among librarians. Perhaps a pair of typewriter key earrings? :-)

Use the "Phronistery" to jazz up your vocabulary for those finals!

In addition to the many dictionaries & thesauri that we have in print and online, here's a fun resource, the Phrontistery. What's a "phrontistery?" Look it up in the OED :-)

Library Hours - Finals Week

Busy busy busy! Your blogger had to scurry around just to refill the printers and clear some jams at 9am this morning, lots of work going on now isn't there?! The library will be open regular hours for you through next Friday the 18th when we will close at 4:30pm. We are closed the following two weeks and will reopen Monday 1/4 @8am. Good luck with your term papers, finals etc., and feel free to ask us if you need any help.

Weird Books Room

Well, no, we don't actually have such a room, but your blogger just read about one in the Times online. It's about a fun addition to the AbeBooks site, the big used book site online. The link above is to the UK page, but the US AbeBooks has a weird room too! Some fun reading ideas for over winter break perhaps :-)

(And no, sorry, we don't have the title pictured here, lol.)

Kindles at the library!

If you've been curious about Amazon's Kindle e-book readers, you will be interested to know that the library now has some that are available for checkout (for faculty and staff only for now.) They have several books on them, various classics, and also some periodicals, for example the NY Times.

Ask about them at our circulation desk, or visit our E-reader guide.

Last 2 weeks - Keep our Research Guides in mind!

We know it is busy this time of year for you, and we'd like to remind you of our extensive lineup of library research guides. There is a link to them on our web page, on the left hand side. They can save you a lot of time spent trying to figure things out on your own. Of course, you're always welcome to ask us for help too!

A new Sun-Maid Raisin Girl?!

Yep, although she has remained the same for almost 100 years with only minor changes, the original Sun Maid Raisin Girl is now being replaced. Advertising history is quite an interesting topic, and we have many titles on the subject in our catalog. Business Source Premier is a good source for articles on the subject, as is Communication & Mass Media Complete.

If you're looking for ad images, there are a number of sites online with historic advertising images, like this Duke University page.

Drop in writing help

The library is now offering drop-in writing help on Tuesdays 6-9, Wednesdays 7 – 9 PM and Saturday 12 – 5 PM. Our writing assistant is at a desk at the back of the main floor.

Best & Worst of...

Congressional committee web sites that is, at least according to this National Journal article. Lots of links to sites ranging from very informative to, well, maye not so informative sites ;-)