Blog

Tuesday, September 23rd from 11:30-12:20 and again from 12:30-1:20

Bosler 214

Several of the new web 2.0 tools, including blogs, wikis, Google docs, and Google sites, have become popular on campus as a means for writing and publishing online. Their flexibility, ease of use, and tools for collaboration have made them popular for distributing multimedia to students as well as providing students tools to work together on projects or writing assignments.  We’ll look at several examples of each and discuss when they may be preferable to other platforms for writing and multimedia presentation such as Word and the Blackboard discussion board.

Over the summer we evaluated each book in our print reference collection.  We moved many items to the circulating collection, or replaced them with more current print or electronic editions.  The result is a smaller, but more up-to-date, browsable print reference collection.   The space gained will be used for additional seating and special displays.

Oxford Islamic Studies is now available online and listed with the Library’s databases. This fully integrated resource features reference content and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture.

The Contemporary Literary Criticism Series is now available online and is listed among the Library’s databases as “Literature Criticism Online”. Literature Criticism Online represents a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres. It Includes Contemporary Literary Criticism, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, as well as Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, and Short Story Criticism.

One of the benefits of our recent library catalog update is an improved language limiter.  Now, if you want to search for a work in a particular language, just select that language from the drop-down menu below the “search” and “reset” buttons.

This is particularly useful to those who are looking for foreign language films.  From the drop-down menus, select the desired language and format (DVD or videotape), and only films with dialogue in that particular language will be displayed in the search results.

As announced by Robert Renaud in his May 2008 administrative report to faculty, LIS has redesigned its website. The site is organized into three sections: Library, Teaching & Learning, and Technology.
The “Library” section includes all the information resources and services you have come to expect online. The “Teaching & Learning” section provides information from and about Academic Technology Services. The “Technology” section is home to information from User Services and the Helpdesk on computer and network technologies on campus.
You will notice a more consistent look and feel, streamlined menus on the left hand side, and LIS news items on the right hand side.
Over the course of the past year, LIS conducted three rounds of usability testing in developing the new site. Testing involved faculty from all three academic divisions as well as students from all four years and various majors.
We believe the new site provides better, more organized access to information from and about LIS. Tell us what you think by submitting comments for the webmaster.

Waidner-Spahr library is now a member of Access Pennsylvania and the membership includes free access to several useful databases. The relevant databases for higher education have been added to our database list on the library’s website.

To see a list of the databases, click on the “Search Other Resources” tab on the Access PA website

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this collection contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most exhaustive research requirements in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.

An special exhibit of photos by members of the Dickinson College Student Photography Club are on display beside the Library Circulation Desk.

Rafael Alvarado, director of ATS, will present “Digital Scholarship: How to Connect Teaching & Research with Digital Content” from noon-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, Bosler 214. Using examples of from art history, literature and other disciplines, this presentation describes how to bring research into the classroom by means of digitized primary and secondary sources. A model is proposed for bridging the gap between traditional scholarship, with its emphasis on mastery of domain knowledge, and new media, with its implications for changing modes representing and communicating knowledge.