Do you use the group study rooms in the UST Libraries? Please tell us what you think about the current room reservation sign-up system. Would you be willing to help us take a look at online reservation systems for possible use in the future? We would like to take your thoughts into consideration and invite your opinions. Please contact Julie Kimlinger at 962-5014 for more information.
Several new e-books were recently received and a few titles caught my eye. These titles and nearly a hundred more can be found in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Story behind the Protest Song: A Reference Guide to the 50 Songs That Changed the 20th Century. I’ll give you a pop quiz. Which song is NOT included in the 50:
Go ahead and guess. Or check out the book to see if you agree with the 50 songs that these authors chose.
I feel kinda slighted that my manifesto failed to make it into Milestone Documents in World History, Milestone Documents in American History or Milestone Documents in World Religions. Honestly, it could fit into any of these titles.
I happen to think that Popular Controversies in World History: Investigating History’s Intriguing Questions missed some of the big controversies, like whether or not Elvis and/or JFK are really dead. Oh, I get it. They left this one out cuz OF COURSE both Elvis and JFK are alive and well. Yup, proof right there people! Also missed, no one ever landed on the moon. Meh. I guess the book is not called “Conspiracy Theories in World History” for a reason.
Perhaps Space Exploration and Humanity: A Historical Encyclopedia explains the moon landing but with chapters titled “Astrobiology” and “Microgravity Science” I kinda spaced out (Get it?! See what I just did there?? Which just proves my next point).
Superior Beings: If They Exist How Would We Know? Oh, how this book doth jest! We superior beings, of course, do exist. You know I do because you faithfully read my blog every time I post and hang on my every word. The book is described like this: Examines theology and the idea of a superior being in the context of game theory. The central question posed: If there existed a superior being who possessed the supernatural qualities of omniscience, omnipotence, immortality, and incomprehensibility, how would he/she act differently from us? My aforementioned manifesto explains how, in my omniscience, omnipotence, immortality (possibly immorality, but that’s a different blog post) and incomprehensibility (DEFINITELY this one) I act differently from you.
Shout out to all who participated in Bike Walk Week. Today was THE day if you were only going to pick one day to not drive alone in your car but instead bike, walk, carpool, or take public transportation. There are freebies (mostly coffee and baked goods) from participating companies scattered all throughout the metro area. I got a lovely free coffee cake and tea from our neighbors at Trotter’s Cafe. Mmmm… delish!
The Twin Cities Bike Walk Week website has tons of info to help you out if you want to make this a summer-long activity. 
Or if you’re more research-oriented, you can check out Mechanical & Transportation Abstracts for articles on bike engineering, bike commuting or bike safety. Even bigger than Mechanical & Transportation Abstracts, is the new Engineering Research Database. ERD can handle all your engineering article needs. It’s pretty big. Also, not suprisingly, GreenFile has a lot of articles on biking from environment/ecology journals.
If you weren’t able to get out on your bike this week due to the hundred degree weather, and then the 50 degree weather and finally rain, don’t fret, you got all summer to go for it. So go for it.
Nathan Wunrow, circulation supervisor at the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, has successfully managed for the second year a “Food for Fines” program whereby patrons owing late fees on their library materials pay the fines, not with money, but with food donations instead.
The program began on the first day of Library Week in mid-April and continued through the end of spring semester. These donations helped alleviate $1,588.95 in fines.
The participating UST Libraries took in a total of 811.5 lbs. of canned food and it has been delivered to the Franciscan Brothers of Peace. Last year’s donation was a smaller 288 lbs, however the duration of the program was just one week long.
Nathan says: “Thanks go to Paul Hietpas of Physical Plant for letting us use his scale, and thank you to everyone who supported this program.”
The 2011 UST Libraries Summer Reading List is now available for your enjoyment! Keep this list handy throughout the summer and check occasionally to see if it has been updated with additional titles. Thank you, library staff members, for these inviting descriptions of your summer-time reading recommendations.
Monday May 23 Update: 2nd floor was completed on Sunday rather than Tuesday.
Tuesday’s work will include COJO and Special Collections rather than waiting until Thursday for those areas.
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A heads-up that there will be computer network outages Tuesday May 24- Thursday May 26 on selected floors of the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library. See the list below for the schedule by floor and room number.
Tuesday, May 24 9:00am to 12 noon
3rd & 4th floors
101
102
103
301
302
303
312
305
306
308
309
321
322
323
COJO
Special Collections
All of 4th floor
Wednesday, May 25 9:00am to 12 noon
101a – back open computers
108
109
110
111
113
114
115
117
118
124
106
1.52
1.53
1.54
1.56
211
212
213
218
311
312
314
Thursday, May 26 9:00am to 12 noon
Lower-level student workstations by windows facing quad
1st floor student workstations by windows facing quad
20
21
23
.53
.55
On behalf of the library staff I’d like to say congratulations and farewell to our graduating seniors. Also, good luck. Please remember as you go on your way that we’re still here for you if you have questions and some of the library resources you used in your classes will be available to you courtesy of the Electronic Library of Minnesota (ELM).
ELM offers a number of familiar resources to any Minnesota resident with an active public library card. A few titles you may (hopefully) have used while at UST are:
So for all you business graduates, you will still have access to Business Source Premier, only you’ll be accessing it through ELM instead of UST Libraries.
Once again, congratulations, good luck, and farewell. And call us if your boss gives you a research project that is over your head. We’re still gonna be here for you.
Hey, this is pretty cool: the Library of Congress has released the National Jukebox, which provides free access to some vintage music from the LOC and other collections. Users can browse or search by genre and artist, access, create, and submit playlists, etc. The “Jukebox Day by Day” feature lets you see what was recorded each day of the year.
About the National Jukebox
The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives.
Coffee Bené in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library will close for the summer at 3pm on Friday, May 20. It will reopen in the fall in time for the new school year. We thank you for enjoying our coffee shop with us and helping to make it a success. We will be joining you in taking the extra steps to visit Coffee Bené by Davanni’s throughout the summer.
The Wellness Center will hold a Finals Stress Spa Retreat for students from 1 to 3 p.m. on Study Monday, May 16, in the O’Shaughnessy Room, Room 108, in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center.
The stress spa retreat includes free professional chair massages, aromatherapy oils, soothing music, coloring, fresh fruit platter, cocoa and other snacks.
A sign-up sheet for the massages will be posted 10 minutes before the hour (12:50 and 1:50) at the stress spa location. Massage sign ups are on a first-come, first-served basis. Choose between a chair massage or hand massage.
For more information contact the Wellness Center, (651) 962-6128.