News on the Cobb

Some new favorites...

2009-11-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

This is what we are LOVIN' at the Cobb Library these days:

Wolframalpha.com -- check out this great new Web site! It's NOT a browser (though it looks like one). It's a computational knowledge engine. Enter your question or calculation and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute the answer. It's pretty amazing! Especially for those of us who are decidedly NOT math people.

Life photos in Google -- Once again, Google demonstrates its far-reaching power. In 2008, Google purchased the digital rights to Life Magazine photos from 1860-1970. This is a wonderful historical resource. To see the photos, go to Google.com and type in this handy search shortcut -- source:life

Do you have some favorites? Email me!

Our offices are still a mess...

2009-09-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

...but we keep on plugging away! It's been almost a month since school started and would you believe that we are still cleaning up the mess that shutting down for the summer generates? Sigh.

In between all that mess in our offices, we are still planning the direction we'd like the library to take this school year. We're focusing on budget and acquisitions right now. Both of us agree that we are comfortable with our major databases at this point, so don't look for any databases to be added until next year. And if you don't agree, I defy you to compare us to other academic libraries' research databases; I think you'll discover that we are competing very well.

Coming soon -- a display of our books about Calvinism and Reformed Theology. The "New Calvinism" is a hot topic right and we purchased a bunch of good stuff last year about it. Hopefully you'll stop by and see what we have.

We're Baaaaccckkk

2009-08-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

It's a new school year! And that means we librarians hit the ground running! Lots of serials to check in from the summer (check our shelves soon for the latest happenings in the academic serial world); lots of new goals and visions for the new year; and lots of new faces! We hope that if you're new to CBC, you will come by and introduce yourself and see what the library has to offer. If you are NOT new then we still hope you'll come by and see what the library has to offer.

There are exciting things happening at CBC this year; namely our campus' new Web 2.0 portal that should revolutionize library access. I hope we can preview that soon!

Let's have a great year!

Winding down...

2009-04-24T06:45:00.001-07:00

It's nearing the end of the Spring semester here at CBC. This means several things for us: 1. ) That we scramble to finish projects; and 2.) That we close for the summer!

The first isn't so great, the second is fabulous!

Overall, we are proud of what we have accomplished this year at the CBC Library. We've reorganized the serials shelves; increased our holdings with both books and e-books; subscribed to more databases; and reorganized our electronic resources into a much-easier-to-navigate A-Z list. With only two full-time librarians, our list of accomplishments impresses even us. (Not to brag or anything :)

Unfortunately it's never enough. We never really started that weeding project we desperately need; and there's still the issue of off-campus access that's a thorn in our side. I hate to say it, but I guess we'll get to it next year!

Have a great summer!

P.S. If you need off-campus access to electronic resources during the summer, please, please email me at: rwhittingham@cbc.edu

New Book Shelf

2009-03-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Just to your right beside our periodical section is something new that we hope users will take the time to check out. We've added a New Book Shelf! Recently added books will be featured on this shelf for a short time before they are added to the main collection. Here are some highlights added this week:

* A Pryor Commitment : The autobiography of David Pryor/ by David Pryor with Don Harrell (2008)

* Things I've Been Silent About/ by Azar Nafisi (2008)

* Race Relations in the Natural State/ by Grif Stockley (2007)

* Crisis of Conscience : Arkansas Methodists and the Civil Rights Struggle/edited by James T. Clemons and Kelly L. Farr (2007)

* The Torah Story/ by Gary Edward Schnittjer (2006)

"The New Calvinism"

2009-03-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

An article in the most recent (March 23, 2009) Time issue has caused a stir in CBC library. The article in question, "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now," was brought to our attention by one of our erstwhile Student Assistants (affectionately referred to as "library slaves"). Number 3 on this all-important list is "The New Calvinism." Frankly, it's an excellent article about the increasing popularity of Calvinism in America. Time takes a positive approach to the topic and packs a lot of information into a one-page article.

Besides the obvious fact of information, this article sparked a flurry of acquisitions activity in our library. We immediately went to our online catalog and searched our shelves for items that might pertain to this growing hot topic. The article mentioned authors such as John Piper, Mark Driscoll and Albert Mohler. Fortunately, we have a lot of John Piper already; unfortunately, we have very little by Driscoll and Mohler. A pleasant morning was spent on locating recent books published by these and other authors and in a few weeks, should you desire to read something about "The New Calvinism" we'll be ready and waiting for you.

You never know what will inspire us librarians. Collection Development is a slowly-morphing process that we're never sure we've gotten right. It's helpful to search for ideas both in the usual and unusual places. Recently we've found inspiration from National Public Radio, a professor's syllabus, and at least two mainstream magazines.

P.S. The Time article is on our periodical shelves if you'd like to pop over now and read it; also we have several of Piper's books available now if you would like to get a head start. :)

National Women's History Month

2009-03-06T13:02:00.001-08:00

March is National Women's History Month. Sponsored by the National Women's History Project, the month "recognizes and celebrates the diverse and historic accomplishments of women." The project itself is an educational nonprofit organization that provides information and educational materials and programs.

We are celebrating Women's History in the CBC Library for two reasons: 1.) We are women.; and 2.) We have a lovely display shelf by our computers that showcases books just perfectly.

Stop by and check out our offerings on Women's History. You might learn something!

To Microform it or not...

2009-03-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

Most people (but certainly not you, dear reader) probably think Librarians deal mostly with books. That's not entirely true; in fact, the truth is much more abstract. Librarians prefer to deal with information -- both in its physical and metaphysical format. The physical format is fairly self-explanatory, i.e. books, magazines, etc. But the metaphysical form of information requires a bit more thought. With the advent of technology, information has taken on an entirely new persona. After all -- information published on the Internet is technically physical (because it can be seen) but contradictorily, it cannot be held in your hands, cataloged, or shelved. At the most we librarians can classify the information found on the Web (but not the Web itself). There are new methods in libraries that will soon replace the way librarians handle classification but we won't bore you with the details -- especially since most of you will probably never even notice it.

Right now, we CBC Librarians are more concerned with one format of information -- the microform. Today's library usually has two types of microform: microfiche and microfilm. Back in the 1930s, when the American Library Association first endorsed their use, microforms were supposed to save the world. Libraries were running out of space at a rapid rate but Hallelujah! existing information could suddenly be converted into film that took up much less space and could be preserved infinitely. Fast forward to present-day and you'll still see microfilm and microfiche being added to library collections. The CBC Library adds over a thousand sheets of microfiche a year to our shelves. This both allows us to have additional journal titles but also frees up sorely needed space on our periodical shelves.

And now we question this practice.

Why, you ask? Because a few weeks ago, a very lovely gentleman visited our library and provided a demonstration of the fanciest microform reader and printer we've ever seen. (If you are familiar at all with microforms, you know they have special readers to view them). We've always been happy with our perfectly serviceable reader and printer; but this new machine blew our minds. It was easy to use and it made our microfiche look fantastic. The catch? The price tag. At a whopping $10,000 this reader and printer was way out of our price range; but what we were left with after the salesman had gone was perhaps something more important -- unprecedented questions.

Questions such as this: how widely used is our microfiche and film? Reluctantly, we admit that both forms are rarely used. And how much longer can our current reader last? Will we be able to replace it when it goes? And should we? What then happens to the information contained on the fiche and film?

We like to think we keep current with innovations and trends in libraries. Which is why we know that a lot of libraries are digitizing their information. We could do that -- it would take LOTS of time, but it's doable. But we don't want to go down that road unless its necessary. So we resolved to research the issue of microforms. We wanted to know what other libraries were doing with their film and fiche. Was digitizing the only option left? Is the microform industry dying a natural death? How could we adapt?

You know what we found?

Nothing.

Well..hardly anything. Certainly nothing with which to base such a major decision upon. Yes, some libraries are digitizing their information but no one mentions what happens to the microforms afterwards. We are at a loss to explain this lack of information and a bit disheartened that our resources have failed us. We feel in our guts that microforms as a type of information format are on their way out of style and usefulness; that digital information will someday replace a good bit of physically formatted information. But we can't find the research to support this theory.

So for now we'll keep supplying this type of information to our users. It might not be as easy to use as the Web but it's still viable information and it's our job to meet your information needs regardless of the format. This is our job -- we're librarians and we just can't help it.

Systems Down

2009-02-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

Access to our Research Databases is currently down while we work on adding a proxy server that will allow for easy off-campus access. You can still get to our EBSCOHost databases, however, by typing http://search.ebscohost.com/ into your web browser. If you are off campus, you will have to enter in a username and password (which librarians will be happy to share with you if you are a faculty or student! Just email me!).

I know it's a nuisance but once the proxy server is in place access will be so improved, you'll forget all about these dark days.

Defective Blogger...and also more upgrades

2009-02-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

It's all my fault. I am a busy person, to be sure, but I made a commitment to this blog that I have not kept. We were off a whole month for Christmas Break but this is no excuse as to why I have not blogged SINCE NOVEMBER. I'm a defective blogger and I beg your forgiveness before I resolve to be better in the future.

But on a bright note, I have lots of fun things to tell you. We have made some improvements recently and added some fun stuff that I know you'll want to check out. Here is a rundown of what's been happening at the J.E. Cobb Library since November:

1. New A-Z List and E-Journal Portal -- Our "Research Databases" have a new look. This is a new way of organizing our databases and other electronic resources so that users can conduct a more thorough search of our offerings. E-journals can be searched by title or subject; the databases themselves can still be searched in the traditional manner. One great feature I'm excited about is that the search can be limited to e-books. I never knew we had so many until I played around with this!

2. Scientific American Archive Online -- Although the title of this says it's an Archive, it's actually up-to-date access to Scientific American. You can view the most recent issue or any issue back to 1993. This electronic access has replaced the print version on our shelves. Some may disagree with removing a print journal from our shelves but keep in mind that this is full-text access and you can still read any article you want. Also, it created significant more space on our periodical shelves.

3. American Theological Library Association Historical Monographs Collection (ATLA) -- We've just signed up for a free trial of the BETA version of ATLA's Historical Monographs Archive. This is an archived collection of historical monographs (or books) that is searchable and viewable from any EbscoHost database. This is a beta version so some books might not have full access. We are previewing it right now and if we decide to purchase it; many more items and wider range of copyright dates would be available.

* The collection can be accessed by clicking on "Academic Search Premier" from our A-Z list and looking for the "NEW" star at the very top of the page. It should say "Try our new Historical Digital Archives Beta!"

* Search for a book or monograph by keyword. Once the user clicks on a result, the book will open and a document map will appear that allows for easy navigation. The book itself can also be searched by keyword by clicking on the "Search" feature on the left-hand side of the screen.

* There is also a slider across the top of the toolbar so the image can be manipulated for a larger or smaller font.

I am very excited about all of these improvements. Particularly the new A-Z list. Coming soon is the addition of a proxy server for the library website that should ease the struggles of faculty and students trying to gain off-campus access. Very excited about that!!

Upgrades

2008-11-17T07:42:00.001-08:00

In what is the first of, I hope, many upgrades for the Cobb Library, we've upgraded our offerings on EBSCOHost. Academic Search Elite and Business Source Elite -- two of the best databases offered by EBSCOHost -- have now been upgraded to Academic Search Premier and Business Source Premier.

What does this mean? Well it means that we've added a total combination of about 8,000 journal titles to those databases. It means that our coverage of your topic is going to be more thorough, and comprehensive. It means, hopefully, that you should be able to find whatever you need! Without a doubt, these two databases are some of the best available worldwide and we're happy to bring them to you!

Just for fun...

2008-11-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

I should have put this up last week but I didn't think of it until now. Here's an interesting book in our library about Halloween: Halloween and Satanism by Phil Phillips and Joan Hake Robie; it's found at 133.4 P545h on our shelf. The celebration of Halloween has become quite controversial in the past several years -- read to find out why!

And in the interest of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday -- check out this book from our library: Thanksgiving : an investigation of a Pauline theme by David Pao (found on our shelf at 227.06 P196t). Here's an excerpt from the product description: "The 'Be thankful' (Colossians 3:15) is a recurring exhortation in the letters of the apostle Paul. No other New Testament writer gives such a sustained emphasis on thanksgiving--and yet, major modern studies of Paul fail to wrestle with it. David Pao aims to rehabilitate this theme in this comprehensive and accessible study, a New Studies in Biblical Theology volume. He shows how, for Paul, thanksgiving is grounded in the covenantal traditions of salvation history. To offer thanks to God is to live a life of worship and to anticipate the future acts of God, all in submission to the lordship of Christ. Ingratitude to God is idolatry. Thanksgiving functions as a link between theology, including eschatology, and ethics. Here Pao provides clear insights into the passion of an apostle who never fails to insist on the significance of both the gospel message and the response this message demands."

As you can see, we are in a festive mood at the library!

The Nature of things

2008-10-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

We don't know if you've noticed, but we -- the CBC Librarians -- are making a concerted effort to increase our online offerings. In some cases this means that we shell out big bucks for online access -- in other cases it means that we take advantage of some relatively cheap or free offerings. Because we are such a small school, we can often get access to electronic resources at a highly reduced rate (this doesn't happen VERY often, but sometimes...if we're very lucky).

One such example of this is our newly-added electronic resource to the science magazine Nature. This is actually provided to us FREE via a library consortia that is too complicated to explain; all you need to know is that we now have it and it's great! We have full text access from 2004 - present and the site includes podcasts, videos and more. The online journal will be available from our Web site under the "Journals" page; or you can click at the above link.

As with most things, it is only available on-campus at this time.

Enjoy!

Six degrees of Andy Warhol

2008-10-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Arkansas Arts Center has an interesting exhibit on Andy Warhol beginning Oct. 17th and running through Feb. 1st. The show is being produced in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum which is a part of the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh, PA. I've actually seen to this museum and can tell you that it's fabulous...so this exhibition should be equally so.

Warhol needs no introduction but in case you're interested learning more about him and his art, check out this video from the J.E. Cobb Library: Andy Warhol (Video 700.92 W232z an29). It's a profile of Andy Warhol's life and work since his death in February 1987 and examines a career that spanned painting, film, publishing, rock music and television.

And if you've never had a chance to visit the Arkansas Arts Center (located in downtown Little Rock), take a Saturday afternoon and check it out! You'd be surprised what a great museum it is! The special exhibitions are always well-done and you can tour some of the galleries for free!

More new databases...

2008-10-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

The CBC Library has gained access to two new databases from Yale University:

eHRAF World Cultures: The eHRAF World Cultures is a cross-cultural database that contains information on all aspects of cultural and social life. The annually-growing eHRAF database is unique in that the information is organized by cultures and ethnic groups and the full-text documents are subject-indexed at the paragraph level.

eHRAF Archaeology: eHRAF Archaeology is a cross-cultural database containing information on prehistory. This unique, annually-growing eHRAF database is organized by archaeological traditions and the full-text documents are subject-indexed to the paragraph level.

Both of these databases are produced by the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF) at Yale University. They are available until Dec. 31, 2008. If you are on-campus, you have access. Off-campus...not so much

We've already heard how great the Archaeology one is -- please continue to let us know that you think!

New!!! Trial Database

2008-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Because we, the Librarians of the J.E. Cobb Library, always adhere to our faculty's requests, we've recently added the Emerald ManagementXtra database on a 30-day trial basis.

The database comprises full-text articles from journals covering all management disciplines, independent reviews from management journals and a selection of user resources. Emerald Management Xtra acts as a gateway to management literature, offering current content. This is a great online resource for business students and researchers . The link for the database can be found HERE but you can only view it if you are on campus. Let us know what you think!!

The beauty of Amazon

2008-09-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Continuing in the same vein of the last post, i.e. online resources that we love, a word or two or forty-seven must be said about Amazon. Because we can not say enough good things about Amazon.com. And if you think it's just a Web site where you can buy books, you are woefully and greatly understating it's importance. Yes, you can buy books; you can also buy toys, clothes, shoes, jewelry, food, furniture...but that is not the point. The point is that Amazon.com has one of the most sophisticated information retrieval searches in the whole wide world. Second only to Google, Amazon's retrieval capabilities are astounding. For example, a registered user can type in the title of the book and get not only what they were searching for -- but also 20 recommendations for other titles they might be interested in. The way Amazon thinks for itself is almost scary.

So what does this have to do with Libraries? And why would a librarian be in agog of what is basically a giant online store? Because libraries are in the business of information retrieval and because we only wish our library online card catalog could be as efficient as Amazon's. We wish that when you come into our library and search for materials, that our system could not only retrieve what you were looking for, but that it would also retrieve other resources that might help you. We wish we could keep track of everything you've ever looked for that so that we can know our patrons as well as Amazon knows that we love British mystery novels. Unfortunately, such information retrieval systems are quite expensive. So, we will strive to use what we do have to the best of our abilities and hope that when you are looking for something, you will come and ask us.

It also might surprise you to know that we use Amazon in cataloging and acquisitions (purchasing materials) behind-the-scenes in the CBC library. If we have an obscure title with a questionable copyright date, we've been known to go to Amazon.com to look for other editions in an effort to sort out which one we've got. We've also used customer reviews to find out more about a book and decide whether it should be purchased for the library.

We can't help it. We're librarians and this is how we are!

Confessions of the CBC Librarians

2008-09-05T07:46:00.001-07:00

As much as it pains us to admit this, we're going to say it anyway: Lots of good research ideas can be found online. This is how we roll at the CBC Library -- 100% honesty, 100% of the time. And so while we are reluctant to admit that not all good ideas come from the library, we're women enough to embrace those ideas found elsewhere.

You may have noticed a list of links posted on the right-hand side of this page. These are links we use here in the library and that we think will be helpful for you as well. One of them is Bible Gateway.com. This wasn't something we discovered ourselves (a family member pointed it out to us), but we think it's great! It's basically a searchable online Bible in a 100 different versions and 50 different languages. The database is searchable by keyword, text, book of the Bible, etc. and one of the best parts is that it will show you any version you desire. The other best part is that it's free.

Because we support a religious school, we want to find things especially like this for our patrons. It's our job and believe it or not, we like doing it! We hope the Web site will be an invaluable tool for you in your Bible classes.

Wiki-Wiki What?

2008-09-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

Besides being the latest online rage, a "wiki" is a web page or a collection of web pages designed to allow anyone who accesses it to contribute or edit content. In some cases, it's like a blog that several people post on; in other circumstances, it is used to create collaborative Web sites for businesses or organizations. The best part about wikis is that their use is expanding. Tomorrow's wiki will be unlike yesterday's. One of the most common wikis is one I'm sure many of you have heard of: Wikipedia.

If there is a special club for "only-the-best-librarians," I'm sure I will never be asked to join after this post.

I, a librarian, am in full support of Wikipedia.

There, I've said it, and it's out there and I can't take it back. In actuality, I'm in support of all the Wikimedia projects as I firmly believe they can add to any research project. You may not have known how many there are as they seem to add a new one every few months! So here's a rundown:

Wikipedia
Commonly known as "the free encyclopedia", Wikipedia is a project to build free encyclopedias in all languages of the world. Virtually anyone with Internet access is free to contribute, by contributing neutral, cited information.

Wiktionary
Wiktionary is a project to create a multilingual free content dictionary in every language. It actually aims to be much more extensive than a typical dictionary, including thesauri, rhymes, translations, audio pronunciations, etymologies, and quotations. The project started in December 2002, and as of January 2008 is available in over 100 languages with over 3,000,000 entries in all.

Wikiquote
Wikiquote is a repository of quotations taken from famous people, books, speeches, films or any intellectually interesting materials. Proverbs, mnemonics or slogans are also included in Wikiquote. The project started in July 2003; as of January 2008, it includes over 75,903 pages in almost 50 languages

Wikibooks
Wikibooks aims to build a collection of free e-book resources, including textbooks, language courses, manuals, and annotated public domain books. It aims to help both (self-)instruction of students, and teachers in high-schools and universities. The project started in July 2003 and now has over 84,000 modules from over 5,000 developing books, across over 50 languages.

Wikisource
Wikisource is a multilingual project, started in November 2003, to archive a collection of texts that could be distributed as free and open content. It is not only a useful format for storing classics, laws, and other free works as hypertext, but it also serves as base for translating these texts. At the beginning, source texts in all languages (except Hebrew) were all on one wiki. However, Wikisource now has several editions in many individual languages.

Wikispecies
Wikispecies is an open, wiki-based project to provide a central, more extensive species database for taxonomy. Launched 14 September 2004, Wikispecies is aimed specifically at the needs of scientific users, and as of January 2008, has over 125,000 entries.

Wikinews
The Wikinews project was launched in December 2004 with the mission to report the news on a wide variety of subjects. As of January 2008, 23 language versions of Wikinews have been launched, producing more than 48,000 news articles in total. Contributors from around the world write news articles collaboratively. Reports range from original reporting and interviews to summaries of news from external sources. All of them are required to be written from a neutral point of view.

Wikiversity
Wikiversity is a project dedicated to learning materials and learning communities, as well as research. It was set up as a Wikimedia project, on 15th August, 2006, with the English and German Wikiversities, as well as the multilingual co-ordination hub. Since then, these have been joined by the French, Greek, Italian and Spanish Wikiversities. Despite what its name may suggest, Wikiversity is not limited to university (or tertiary) level materials, but is open to materials and communities of all learner levels.

So, how can I, as a librarian, support the use of Wikis in research? Simple. Read the references in the Wiki articles. Not every article has been written by Joe Schmo who made up a bunch of stuff. Some really useful information can be found at any of the above links; and a lot of it has been written by credible sources. Any Wikimedia Web site is very searchable and easy to use. You don't even need a librarian to show you how.

The beginning...

2008-09-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Sometime last year, I read an article in the Library Journal by Antoinette Powell that discussed using a blog to disseminate information from your library. I was instantly struck by this idea and have been waiting for other projects to be finished so I could focus on this for our library. This blog will be more than just library news. We'll be posting information on how to get the most out of the CBC Library. Research databases, books, journals, online access trials, you name it -- it will be here. I hope you'll make it part of your daily routine to check back and learn more about the wonders of our library. It really is a great place and there is much for you to discover. Let us help!