Quick facts: E-reserves

Are you busy planning syllabi for J-term and Spring semester? Here's some quick facts about e-reserves.

• Moodle is the method of "delivering" e-reserves for each course. (Moodle does a lot more than that, though. If you're interested in the bells and whistles, request assistance from the Moodle gurus.)
• It's okay to post small portions of a work. It's better to post small portions of a work you or the library owns.
  
• Copyright guidelines are just that - guidelines, which means each case may be different. The four factors found in the Statement on Fair Use and E-reserves should be weighed for each individual e-reserve.
  
• A posted e-reserve should never be the "meat and potatoes" of a work, regardless of the percentage of the whole it represents.
• E-reserves used in previous semesters can easily be reactivated for future courses, either by sending me an email, or following these simple instructions.
  
• Plays in their entirety are not okay to post.

For more information on reserves in general, visit the reserves page for faculty. Want to post the readings yourself? There's a quick tutorial available on that page, too. For discussions on specific copyright issues, visit with your library liaison. Or feel free to contact me with questions.

Library Hours- Thanksgiving Break

Happy Thanksgiving all! Our hours will be reduced during the break. Here are the library hours:

Tues., Nov. 23 and Weds., Nov 24 - 8am - 4:45pm
Thurs. Nov. 25 - Sun., Nov. 28 (until 6pm)- Closed
Open at 6pm - 1am on Sunday, Nov. 28.

Plan to do research at home over Thanksgiving? Test your library account before you leave campus

If you're planning to do research from home over Thanksgiving break, test your library account from on campus before you leave to make sure you'll be able to access our databases. To test your account, login to your borrowing record (use your 14-digit barcode from your Gustavus ID as your User ID, and use your last name as your password). Problems? Contact e-resources@gustavus.edu before the end of business Wednesday 11/24 to correct account problems before Thanksgiving break.

Archives Renovation: A Brave New World

The College and Lutheran Church Archives has been, for the most part, in its current location since the opening of the second Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library in late 1972. During that last thirty-eight years many items have been collected. Thousands of acid-free boxes serve as home to the unique documents, photographs, recordings, and numerous other miscellaneous materials created by and about the college and those who have called Gustavus home.

In an effort to improve the facility and gain additional storage space, Jeff Jenson and Michelle Twait applied for a Minnesota Historical & Cultural Grant made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Their application was successful. By mixing the award with money from the library and an archives endowment, archivally appropriate shelving will be installed. As a result, the entire space was emptied. With the room being bare for the first time in nearly forty years, the space is undergoing a much needed cleaning and painting with the help of physical plant staff.

The archives will remain open during this tumultuous upheaval. This is being done because it is the primary mission of the College and Lutheran Church Archives to make materials "available for use and study." Information access will continue, but minor delays may occur.

To learn more about the College and Lutheran Church Archives please contact Jeff Jenson or visit the website.

Stellar Students

Congratulations to Rose Follis, Tyna Johnson and Annie Kleinschmidt on being chosen as Star Students for fall semester!

Star Students are library student employees who have demonstrated superior performance in their departments. The library depends heavily on student workers and wishes to recognize those that go above and beyond the call of duty.

Thanks Rose, Tyna and Annie!

Armistice Day Blizzard at Gustavus

Today is the anniversary of the Armistice Day Blizzard of November 1940. The Monday started much like today with unseasonably warm temperatures that had climbed to the low 60s during the afternoon. However, the weather changed quickly and temperatures dropped by 40 degrees over the next several hours. A large and powerful winter storm rolled across the Midwest bringing strong winds, sleet, and snow.

In Minnesota, forty-nine people died as a result of the storm. Most of the dead were duck hunters. There were no deaths at Gustavus, but the storm hit campus hard. According to an account in the Gustavian Weekly, many faculty couldn't get down the bluffside to return to their homes, and students, lacking proper winter attire, were donning wild combinations of clothes in their efforts to keep warm. Let us hope that the rain forecast for this evening does not turn to snow.

Check it out

Our AV collection has moved out into the open stacks on the first floor. It's now easier to browse and you can check out any movie for 24 hours.

We've also moved the AV desk out near the stacks and opened up a new study space in its place.

Students: Earn a free 5 dollar print card!

Students: participate in a one-hour focus group on Dec. 1st and earn a free $5.00 print card good for the 2010-11 academic year. The focus groups are casual and, most importantly, your participation will help improve the library for current and future Gusties! 

For more information or to sign-up, please send an email to libstudy@gustavus.edu. Indicate the time of day that works best for you: early afternoon, late afternoon, or evening.

Another Spring Course: Information Fluency

As we have done for several years, the library will again offer NDL 301: Information Fluency. (You can get a sense of what the course is about by checking out last spring's blog and course pages.) As it says in the catalog,

This course will give students interested in going to graduate or professional school -- or who simply want to know more about research -- an immersion in the structure of the literature of their chosen field and exposure to research tools and collections. Students will keep a research log and develop an extensive literature review for a research question of their choice. Shorter projects will require students to analyze aspects of their discipline's traditions, to compare them to traditions in other fields, and to explore the social and ethical dimensions of research.

It meets Tuesdays in the library from 2:30 to 4:20. If that time doesn't work, it can be taken by arrangement. Contact Barbara Fister (fister @ gustavus dot edu) for more details.  Generally students have enjoyed this course because it's discussion-based, small, and fits nicely with other courses that require lots of research.

New Spring Course: NDL 201: Reading Workshop

 

We are offering a new course (.25 credits) in which students will read and discuss two or more books, including a contemporary work of fiction or non-fiction announced in advance and a book chosen by the student. The book being discussed this spring is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It has been praised in many quarters and raises important questions about science, race, and the progress of medicine. (It's also a corking good read.)

In addition to reading and discussing this book, students will publish reviews of the books they choose to read individually to a book-related social network, will reflect on their own reading histories and practices, and will explore the place of books and literacy in contemporary culture. The course will be taught by Barbara Fister and will meet Wednesday afternoons in SSC 202 from 2:30 to 3:50 for the first half of the semester.

Can't fit it in? Keep an eye out for future Reading Workshops. If it's a success, we hope to offer it regularly.