Interlibrary Loan delays

Interlibrary loan requests submitted over the holiday break (effectively December 19, 2008 - January 4, 2009) will not be processed until Monday, January 5, 2009.

Please plan accordingly for delays. If you have questions or concerns about possible delays, please contact the library or email Sonja Timmerman.

Have general questions about ILL? Check out the updated ILL page on the library website.

A reMinder for Moodle

Although it may seem premature to be thinking about J-Term with fall semester just drawing to a close, remember to get your e-reserves for January to the library as soon as you can. The quicker I get 'em, the quicker they get posted! If you're really ahead of the ball game, I'm also able to post spring semester readings, too.

If you're the adventurous type with lots of time on your hands, you can always upload or reactivate your readings yourself. If you do so, please be observant of copyright law. Visit this library page for more detailed information on e-reserves, Moodle, and copyright.

Curious about the name 'Moodle?' Moodle's creator Martin Dougiamas reports:

It's a verb in English but not very well known ... I had heard of the word even though it only appears in larger dictionaries.

When coming up with a name for my system I remember sitting down one evening trying to come up with a word that:

1. was an acronym (because I like hidden meanings)
2. was a word you could say easily
3. was not common on the internet (so searches could find it)
4. had a domain name free

So now you know!

Faster Wireless

Wireless access to the network is so popular in the library, it has been a victim of its own success. At peak times lately, connections have been on the sluggish side.

Now GTS has set up another wireless option. If you're in the library, choose gaclibrary for your connection. We hope this will provide fast relief.

Le Clezio on Literacy

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio's Nobel address is now available on the Nobel Prize website. It is a stirring tribute to writing and bearing witness, and ends with a plea for making stories available to all as a human right.

Literacy and the struggle against hunger are connected, closely interdependent. One cannot succeed without the other. Both of them require, indeed urge, us to act. So that in this third millennium, which has only just begun, no child on our shared planet, regardless of gender or language or religion, shall be abandoned to hunger or ignorance, or turned away from the feast. This child carries within him the future of our human race. In the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, a very long time ago, the kingdom belongs to a child.

Come On! See Posters at the Hillstrom!

There's a wonderful exhibit (actually two wonderful exhibits) at the Hillstrom Museum of art, just down the hall from the Book Mark. One of them, Come On! American Posters from World War I, is close to our hearts for two reasons. One, the posters are from the College Archives. Two, the exhibit brochure, commentary, and general arrangement are the fruit of a Presidential Faculty-Student Collaboration Grant undertaken by Laura Behling (English) and student Chelsea Kramer - and we're always excited about research done by our students and faculty.

Take the time to experience these posters and to read the informative commentary. As the exhibit brochure says,

though these posters may seem but a quaint reminder of a different time, for a United States that now finds itself engaged on the battlefields of Kabul and Kandahar, Basra and Baghdad, they can offer us perspective. They ask their audience to consider the rhetoric and practice of humanitarianism within war, and to examine the nature of sacrifice and democracy. They ask us to regard the relationship between art and politics, and to bear in mind the enormous expenses of battle - measured in money and life . . . On balance, these American posters from World War I give us liberty to contemplate our patriotism, our nationalism, and our humanity.