May – 2012 – St. Thomas Libraries Blog

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May 2012

Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Uncategorized

Poetry on the Patio available for your enjoyment online

Karina Poyerd

UST Libraries have celebrated National Poetry Month for the past 14 years with Poetry on the Patio, an annual outdoor reading on the library terrace.  Recordings of  each are now posted online in a library research guide formatted by Karina Poyerd, library student assistant.  Thank you to library staff members including Talia Nadir, Ben Durrant, John Heintz, Merrie Davidson, and Laura Hansen, for taking a look at Karina’s work as she progressed through this project and providing her wonderful tips. 

Even though the site is still being edited and developed with additional links, you are all invited to visit Poetry on the Patio and enjoy a video of each of the 14 annual readings.  Then follow links to information about the poets selected, books written by the poets and, as often as possible, the text of the selected poems. 

May 16, 2012 by
Archbishop Ireland Library, Uncategorized

Introducing our three newly sainted computers

Ireland Library would like to introduce the namesakes of the three new computers in the Reference Room.  They are Saint Jerome, Blessed Kateri, and Saint Lucy.

Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome

Saint Lucy

Saint Lucy

Blessed Kateri

Blessed Kateri

 

It was a hard fought race but these three candidates rose to the top to receive the honor of having a Personal Computing device named after them.  This might seem insignificant to some, but these indivduals will be implored every time a patron has only a prayer in completing a paper.

Thank you to all Ireland Library users who participated in the democratic process of nominating and voting for saints.  You make Ireland a unique place.

May 14, 2012 by
Database Highlights & Trials

Jacks in the Pulpit

In the mornings that I bike to work I notice a field/crop/murder/herd of Jack in the Pulpits growing along the path.  Does anyone know the correct term to define a group of plants?  I have been tracking their progress throughout the spring.  Their size and color varies greatly.  And each day it seems like more and more little Jacks are joining in with the others.  Whenever I see them I think of ministers preaching from the pulpit.  And whenever I think of ministers preaching from a pulpit, I think of the chapter called “The Sermon” in Moby Dick.  Cuz EVERYTHING always returns to Moby Dick.

Speaking of Moby Dick (cuz the voices in my head are ALWAYS talking about MB), Maurice Sendak told Stephen Colbert in his last interview that Moby Dick was his favorite book.  Moby once, Moby twice, Moby chicken soup with rice.  RIP Maury, RIP.

Also, hilarious!!

Oh, Jack in the pulpits, oh yeah.  For botany info, use BioOne for articles and for background info, use the plant science section of the Encyclopedia of Life Science.

Maybe I should do a challenge blog like 6 degrees of Moby Dick next year.  Hmm… now that’s a good idea! Imagine the exploding readership should that happen.  Well, at least I know Alec Baldwin will become a fan of it (see “hilarious” above).

May 10, 2012 by
Database Highlights & Trials

Hard Core

I don’t know who out there needs to know this, but if you’re TOTALLY hard-core when it comes to using library resources, please note that on Saturday morning from 1-5am the following Gale resources may be unavailable.  That’s only a maybe and that’s a pretty low-use time of day, but still, I thought I’d mention it.

 

 

 

May 8, 2012 by
Archbishop Ireland Library

It’s time to vote for your favorite saint!

Ireland library has three new reference room computers — this comes with its benefits and challenges. On the one hand, people will no longer have to wait in long lines to check Facebook, but these new additions are nameless! While naming a child can in turn dictate the rest of their lives; naming our computers will allow staff to report problems with ease.

As the astute Ireland patron knows, each one of our computers is already named after a great saint in alphabetical order. The next letters up are J, K, and L.  The Ireland staff solicited names from the wider community and these are the top responses we received!  Below are the candidates with links to descriptions of each saint or blessed person. Also, check out the Reference room book The Book of Saints (BX 4655.2 .B66 1989) for a quick blurb on each candidate. And tell your friends to vote too! 

Under the J’s we have:

In the K’s, these names have been raised up: 

For the L’s, here is what was brought forward:  

As for voting, you have two options: 1) you can fill out the white slip of paper on the reference desk, and drop it in the jar there; or 2) go to the following Doodle polls and vote electronically.  Please cast one vote for each individual letter.  Polls close on Friday, May 11, 2012 at 5 p.m.  The new names for the computers will be announced during Finals Week.

  • Cast your online vote for your favorite “J” saint here
  • Cast your online vote for your favorite “K” saint here. 
  • Cast your online vote for your favorite “L” saint here. 

 Thanks for voting!  Rock the vote!

May 7, 2012 by
Database Highlights & Trials

RefWorks News: The Good, the Bad, and the Funky

ATTENTION LATE NIGHT PAPER WRITERS:

Sadly, the bad news is for you…but only if you were planning on writing that paper (or 7) this Saturday night, May 5th.  Sometime in between 11pm and 2 am, RefWorks and its services including RefMobile and Write-N-Cite will be unavailable for up to 2 hours.  Please use this as an opportunity to take a nap… or a scheduled Facebook break. Whichever. (But please do get some sleep.)

ATTENTION EVERYONE ELSE:

And now the good news! ProQuest is again able to directly export to RefWorks. (See SERVICE INTERRUPTION – Proquest to RefWorks.) That means you can forget all those handy workarounds you figured out and go back to the 2-click export directly from your favorite ProQuest databases.

The funky news, though, is that only one of the links in your RefWorks citation will work if you are off campus.


The reason the second link won’t work is because it doesn’t include a code that lets ProQuest know you have the right to access the content if you are not within our campus IP range. Just know that you can get back to your article by using the Get It button for now, and ProQuest is working on fixing that second link for the future.

ATTENTION FACULTY:

This same funkiness will affect you if you are on campus and are trying to add a permanent link to ProQuest content on your BlackBoard page or syllabus. The ezproxy code string will not appear in the persistent link field in Proquest citations whether you are on or off campus, so you will have to add that code string manually to allow your students access to the content if they are off campus.

May 4, 2012 by