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April 7, 2015

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Taken by Storm

There is no other way to put it, YOU (whoever you are) have spoken!
Here are the winners of the first round…
Science Direct (by 7 votes)
JSTOR (by 11 votes)
Scopus (by 6 votes)
Academic Search Complete (by 10 votes)

Now for round 2!

Cast your votes and cast them soon because ONLY TWO can compete for the title of…. well…. I guess,

THE MOST DEMOCRATICALLY VOTED BEST DATABASE AT ALFRED UNIVERSITY

(that’s some serious schools spirit with the purple, even if it’s not grammatically correct)

Before you vote make sure to take a look at what these databases have to offer.
(seriously though we’ve got google analytics on this thing and I can tell)

OK, it’s voting time!
[polldaddy poll=8783604]
[polldaddy poll=8783609]

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esclippa

Posted on

April 2, 2015

Posted under

Events, Exhibits, News

"Harry Potter's World" Coming to Scholes Library

Illustration of an alchemy workshop;
Courtesy National Library of Medicine

I’m pleased to announce that the Scholes Library will be hosting the “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine” exhibit from the National Library of Medicine, from August 31st through October 10th! The exhibit will be accompanied by opening and closing receptions, contests, a series of lectures and events, and much more.
The Harry Potter’s World exhibit is a traveling piece that focuses on the Renaissance traditions–scientific, philosophical, and mythological–that influenced the magic and culture in the world of Rowling’s books. Including images of primary sources on topics from alchemy to botany and magical beasts, the National Library of Medicine’s materials will be supplemented by items from our own collection. Items such as the Magiae Universalis Naturae et Artis (as seen below), a 17th century text from special collections, will be on display, tracing the relationships between alchemy, metallurgy, and chemistry.

A page from the Magiae Universalis

We’re planning an extensive program of activities to accompany and enrich the exhibit, and there should be something for everyone. (Butterbeer! Costume contest! Music! Chocolate frogs! Prizes!) For right now, though, we’d like to reach out to all of you, our patrons and readers, and open the door to your involvement in this event.
As part of the Harry Potter’s World Exhibit, the libraries are seeking professors, staff, and community members of all walks of life to come speak on a topic related to Harry Potter–or to put on a demonstration of a relevant skill, or lead a workshop, or almost anything else you can imagine. While lectures directly about Harry Potter are obviously welcome, this concept is very flexible, and we welcome all proposals and suggestions. Maybe you want to take your inspiration from Professor Sprout’s Herbology class and talk about medicinal herbs; maybe you have some insights into the history of witchcraft in England; maybe you’re feeling crafty and want to teach people how to make their own wands. It’s all open!
Several other institutions have held lecture series while hosting this exhibit. Here are just a few of their titles, to help inspire you:

“Magic, Illusion, and Ghosts: The Marketing of Science and Psychotropics,” Dr. Glen Spielmans, Metropolitan State University
“Quick Quotes and Quibblers: The Role of the Media in the Wizarding World,” Lola Burnham, Eastern Illinois University
“Magic, an Anthropological Perspective,” Dr. Don Holly, Eastern Illinois University
“Character, Structure, Perspective…and a Castle: A Medievalist Reads Harry Potter,” Dr. David Raybin, Eastern Illinois University
“Immortality,” Dr. Thomas Duffy, Yale University

Obviously this is just a tiny selection of the possible range! Let your imaginations run wild; we’re eager to hear your ideas. If you have an idea, a suggestion, a question, a full-fledged proposal, or you’d just like to get involved in some way, please send me an email to sclippa@alfred.edu.
Looking forward to hearing from you!

Trading Cards from Harry Potter’s World Exhibition
Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Posted by

T.Riley

Posted on

March 31, 2015

Posted under

Uncategorized

Bracketology – the winners are up to you

The Final Four are set and so is our bracket. These eight, elite databases, are about to battle it out for #1
Let’s see the matchups!

VS

Overview:
This matchup was completely unexpected! With LexisNexis unexpectedly taking the eighth seed, they look to be a underrated opponent.
Heard around the water cooler:
“I was shocked, I mean, an eight seed? What were they thinking?! If anything I’d have to give em at least a five seed. ” – Anonymous AU Librarian
“I just started laughing. I mean ya, LexisNexis is a great database, but have you seen its interface? No competition bro.” – Scholes student worker
See their stats —> Click on their Logos above to check them out —-> VOTE
[polldaddy poll=8769280]

VS
Overview:
Talk about DRAMA! We’ve got two MAJOR fan favorites here. While both cover completely different areas, this should be a close matchup.
Heard around the water cooler:
“Man… (shakes head) how do I choose? Why would they put these two in the same bracket? I’m going to need another cup of coffee ” – Engineering/History double major
“This AGAIN just verifies that the selection committee pulled an all nighter before choosing matchups….. seriously though ” – Herrick student worker
See their stats —> Click on their Logos above to check them out —-> VOTE
[polldaddy poll=8769299]

VS
Overview:
Read all about it! Newspaper Source Plus vs Scopus! Again another hard matchup, but an interesting one since Scopus is the new database in town.
Heard around the water cooler:
“Not only would I bet the game, I say Scopus takes it all. I mean who reads newspapers? Plus, h-index is the new black.” – Overheard in Macmahon
“Just because I’m an Engineer doesn’t mean I HAVE to vote Scopus, does it? I mean NSP’s got my hometown newspaper, and I’m from ALBUQUERQUE.” – Scholes Librarian
See their stats —> Click on their Logos above to check them out —-> VOTE
[polldaddy poll=8769315]

VS
Overview:
The two heavyweights battle it out here in a matchup that could have possibly been for the championship, a lot to look forward to here.
Heard around the water cooler:
“Great! Two of my favorite databases against each other in the first round!? Think I’ll just flip a coin.” – Herrick student worker
“Wait what? That’s legit.” – AU Liberal Arts & Science Faculty Member
See their stats —> Click on their Logos above to check them out —-> VOTE
[polldaddy poll=8769325]

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T.Riley

Posted on

March 19, 2015

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MARCH MADNESS

Here at Scholes March Madness is in full swing so in the spirit brackets we’ve decided to provide our own bracket of sorts. We’ll break down the numbers and analyze the data over the course of March Madness, each week matching up a couple of our databases in a resource showdown. Stay tuned for the matchups!!!!
Official NCLA (National Collegiate Library Association) Sanctioned MADNESS

Let’s introduce the teams and provide some stats….

Name: “The Freshman” –SCOPUS
Temporal Coverage: 1995-Present
Journal Titles: 21,000
Publishers: 5,000
Books: 70,000
Conference Papers: 6.5 Million
Patents: 24 Million
Coach: Elsevier
Claim to Fame: “The largest abstract and citation database of peer reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings”

Name: “Quarter” –ScienceDirect
Temporal Coverage: 1823-Present
Journal Titles: 2,500
Articles: 13,000
Full Text: Yes
Books: 26,000
Coach: Elsevier
Claim to Fame: “Home to almost one-quarter of the world’s peer reviewed full text scientific, technical and medical content”

Name: “Coverage” –Academic Search Complete
Temporal Coverage: 1887-Present
Indexed Journal Titles: 13,780
Full Text Journals: 9,000
Full Text Peer-Reviewed Journals: 7,850
Coach: EBSCOhost
Claim to Fame: “The world’s most comprehensive, scholarly full-text database for multidisciplinary research”

Name: “Compendex” –Engineering Village
Temporal Coverage: 1884-Present
Engineering Disciplines: 190
Publishers: 1,998
Journals: 3,800+
Trade Magazines: 117
Conference Proceedings: 80,000+
Databases Include: Compendex, NTIS, Chimica, GeoRef (12 in all)
Coach: Elsevier
Claim to Fame: “Engineering Village is the definitive “go to” resource for engineering information for academia”

Name: “The Non Profit” –JSTOR
Publishers: 900+
Disciplines Covered: 500+
Full Text Journals: 2,000+
Primary Resources: 2 Million+
Coach: Ithaca
Claim to Fame: “We Collaborate with the academic community”

Name: “Jr” –LexisNexis Academic
Temporal Coverage: 1790-Present
Newspapers: 3,000+
Magazines: 2,000+
Full Text Sources: 15,000+
Legal Research Coverage: Federal & State
Coach: LexisNexis
Claim to Fame: “Powerful, easy, vetted”

Name: “Newsboy” –Newspaper Source Plus
Full Text News Articles: 58 Million+
Newspaper Coverage: 1,200+
Media Coverage: TV & Radio broadcast transcripts
Coach: EBSCOhost
Claim to Fame: “Today’s news today”

Name: “The Quest” –ProQuest Central
Subject Areas: 160+
Full text Dissertations: 50,000+
Market Reports: 43 Industries
Coach: ProQuest
Claim to Fame: “The Ultimate cross-disciplinary research tool”

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admin

Posted on

March 10, 2015

Posted under

Exhibits, Uncategorized

Students mark Women's History Month with Herrick displays

Students in Professor Vicki Eaklor’s Women in Society class have collaborated with Herrick Library to create some displays marking Women’s History Month.
Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress asked the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as Women’s History Week. Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as Women’s History Month.

During the spring semester, students in Professor Eaklor’s class prepared group presentations on the following topics:

The history of campus violence and related laws in New York State
The contribution of women to New York State’s cultural history
The history of reproductive rights in New York State

Some of the books that the students consulted are included in the display case in Herrick’s main entrance. The student presentations are on display on the main floor of Herrick Library, near the computer lab.
Women in Society, an interdisciplinary course, is the foundation of Alfred University’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program. It examines the relationship of women worldwide to institutions and developments in the social, political, and economic spheres. Topics include biological issues, women and work, women as family members, media portrayal of women, and the origins and development of modern feminism.

Posted by

skwarek1

Posted on

March 6, 2015

Posted under

Events

iArt Installation featured in Herrick Library!

Three students from the I-Art program displayed a fiber art sculpture on March 3rd-4th in the Book End Lounge. The fiber art was suspended from the central overhead lighting fixture and was a primary focal point for patrons entering the library.

Posted by

Mark A. Smith

Posted on

March 2, 2015

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Disaster? or Opportunity!

As some of you know, Scholes Library experienced a bit of “disaster” last week. A weather related radiator issue caused a small flood on our ground floor (Engineering Area). Library staff were at the ready and all library materials were saved by our prepared and quick-thinking staff. We were assisted by an all-hands-on-deck call to dedicated physical plant staff who stopped the fooding and worked quickly to dry us out. We are extremely grateful and proud of our prepared and quick-thinking college staff who suffered little more than “wrinkled toes” from the flooding and clean-up.
From this unfortunate event springs a wonderful opportunity for Scholes Library. As we prepare to put the space into functional order we are able to dream a little. Do we really need these book stacks? Have many of these titles and journals been replaced by electronic content? Are there a better uses for this space that could address an immediate study need? Can we use this opportunity to build a space in Scholes Library that will foster creativity and bring classroom learning to life?
Know that your library is looking to turn this unfortunate event into a innovative library space that will be designed for comfort and productivity and ….. YOU CAN HELP. What are your thoughts? What are your needs?

What would you like to see in our disaster turned opportunity renovated library space?
If you have any thoughts, please forward them to Engineering Librarian Trevor Riley at riley@alfred.edu or Director Mark Smith at msmith@alfred.edu

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esclippa

Posted on

February 24, 2015

Posted under

Collections, News

Mayan Hearts: New Artist's Book

Just a quick note for those interested in artists’ books–or in Mayan art and culture, for that matter.
The Smithsonian Libraries very kindly passed on to us an extra copy of the artist’s book Mayan Hearts by Robert Laughlin, an anthropologist at the National Museum of Natural History and specialist in the Mayan language of Tzotzil.
Mayan Hearts has its origins in the 16th century, at least, when an anonymous Dominican friar created a Tzotzil-Spanish dictionary. The original dictionary was lost in 1914, when the Mexican revolutionary army used its housing library as a stable (removing and destroying the books in the process), but a copy had been made shortly beforehand on the orders of Bishop Francisco Orozco y Jimenez. Upon encountering the dictionary in the vaults of Princeton University’s library, Laughlin was struck in particular by the Tzotzil use of heart-related metaphors to discuss emotion, and sought to illustrate and compile these evocative turns of phrase.
You can encounter these Mayan metaphors and their modern illustrations–by Uruguayan artist Naul Ojeda–in our Special Collections room, along with the rest of our artists’ book collection.

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esclippa

Posted on

February 18, 2015

Posted under

Collections, News

New books on Japanese art

Researchers, fans, and students of Japanese art and culture–rejoice! Scholes has just added 24 new books on Japanese art to the collection (with more on the way)!
This exciting addition is due to a grant secured for the library by Professor Meghen Jones and myself (Art Librarian Eva Sclippa). The grant, from the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, was awarded to help the Scholes Library update and expand its collection in the subject area of Japanese art. Upon arriving at Alfred University this past year, Dr. Jones quickly drew my attention to the limited scope of our offerings on the topic; upon further research, we discovered that over 75% of our books on Japanese art were published prior to 1975–the collection was desperately in need of revitalization. We’re very grateful to the NEAC for the support of this grant.
The books are currently out on the new books shelf in the lobby of the library, just as you walk in the front doors. We encourage you to browse them and see if any catch your interest; there are some really beautiful items out there! Here are some short profiles of a few especially interesting ones, selected entirely on my personal whims:

Kimono: A Modern History
Terry Satsuki Milhaupt
Reaktion Books, London, 2014
ISBN: 1780232780
The kimono is one of the most famous items or images associated with Japanese culture, and certainly with traditional Japanese clothing. But how much do you actually know about them? How did they become such an iconic garment? How are they used and worn today? And, regardless of all those other questions, do you want to see lots of beautiful pictures of really beautiful kimonos?
Of course you do. Go pick up this book.

Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty
Julie Nelson Davis
University of Hawaii Press, Hawaii, 2008
ISBN: 0824831993
If you want to go a bit further back in time in your studies of Japanese art, Davis’s book on Utamaro is one great way to do it. Utamaro was one of the most famous artists of the ukiyo-e (“floating world”) genre, known especially for his portraits and images of beautiful women. In this work, Davis considers Utamaro and his art in the context of the period, particularly the commercial print market.

Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art
John Carpenter
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2012
ISBN: 0300184999
Earlier still are the lavish artworks in the Rinpa style, featuring bold, colorful images and plenty of shiny gold. This book reproduces images of Rinpa artworks beautifully, allowing the reader to sink into their luxuriousness. Carpenter also studies the influence of the Rinpa aesthetic on Western art.

The Brittle Decade: Visualizing Japan in the 1930s
John Dower, Anne Nishimura Morse, Jacqueline Atkins, Frederic Sharf
MFA Publications, Boston, 2012
ISBN: 0878467696
Japan may be more famous for the screens of the Rinpa aesthetic or the woodblock prints of the Edo period, but turning some of your attention to a less-studied era may be rewarding. In The Brittle Decade, the authors explore the vibrant art of Japan in the 1930s, a period full of curious mixtures of old and new–like a kimono patterned with images of tanks.

Of course this is only a small sampling of the new materials we have for you! Come in and take a look at the new books shelf, hopefully before they’re all checked out.

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admin

Posted on

February 10, 2015

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New: subscription to the New York Times

Hi everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that students and staff now have full complimentary access to NYTimes.com and NYTimes mobile apps, thanks to our school-wide subscription.*
We encourage you to take advantage of The New York Times to enrich your educational experience.
NYTimes.com covers a variety of topics with quality and depth through breaking news articles, blogs, videos and interactive features. In addition, you will be able to share content on social networks, save articles of interest, subscribe to email newsletters and set up personalized alerts. Your access to NYTimes.com is available from any location, on or off campus.
Activate your Pass for free access to NYTimes.com by clicking here and following the simple instructions. You may also wish to view this short video.

* Users must have a valid email address from Alfred University. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. Does not include e-reader editions, Times Premier content or digital versions of The New York Times Crossword. This program provides only select access to The New York Times Archive and does not replace database services to which your institution may currently subscribe. Other restrictions apply.