Textbooks in the Library

Every year, at the beginning of every semester, it happens: students approach the Ross Pendergraft Library service desks asking if we have their textbooks.  And every year, it’s usually the same response:

This year, it will be different.  At the request of the Arkansas Tech administration, the library purchased 27 general education textbooks for a new initiative to provide textbook access for general education courses.  The purpose of this program is to help students in dire financial straits or those students whose textbooks are late in arriving for the start of classes.

They are available at the Circulation desk for 2 hour check-out within the library ONLY–they cannot leave the building.

To see our current selection, search our online catalog Find It and select the drop-down “Course Reserves”

screenshot of find it course reserves

Then type “Textbooks”.

screenshot of textbooks list available for checkout.

This will display textbooks available in the course reserves available for checkout.  You can also limit selections by course information using the left filter “Course Information”

screenshot of textbooks filters

If a professor has arranged for a specific book to be placed on course reserve at the library, you can also search by instructor’s name, course code, or course name.

Book checked out?  No worries.  Sign-in to Find It and use your your Tech ID and password, and place a Request:

gif of signing in to find it

Once signed in, use the Request feature to place a hold request on items checked out.  When the item returns, you will get an email to let you know the book is available at the circulation desk.

screenshot of request

If you are a professor and wish to place an extra faculty copy on course reserve for the benefit of students who may be strapped for cash or unable to acquire the book in time for class, consider lending it to the library.  Faculty personal copies are always returned at the end of the semester, and it is a great way to guarantee student access to required course materials.  Learn more about this program by visiting our website http://libguides.atu.edu/services/faculty#course or contact us for more questions about the program and how you can help us.

Remember–not every class will have a textbook available at the library!  However, this new initiative will help make obtaining a college degree slightly more affordable and easier.  If the program is a success, we will purchase more.  So if you need a textbook, come check us out!

 

 

Back to School

Welcome home and welcome back!  The Library is open and ready for new and returning students & faculty.  Over the summer, we’ve really bulked up with new services, new hours, and new databases designed to help everyone keep calm and carry on through the academic life of Tech.  Here’s the top five things you should know about Tech’s most popular destination for studying, printing, and researching.

We’re Open Late…Really Late

The Library is the best and ONLY place on campus open for studying, printing, and meeting after midnight at Tech.  From Sunday through Thursday, we remain open until 1:00 AM and continue to offer excellent and slightly over-caffeinated service long after other offices and buildings close.

In addition, the Library will now offer extended hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Beginning Friday, August 25th, the library will remain open until 8:00 P.M. on Fridays and Saturdays during the regular fall semester.  Additionally, we will open early on Sunday’s at 1:00 PM beginning Sunday, August 27th.

hours for the library in a chart.

Check our website for full schedules, special hours during holidays, and our upcoming 24-hour schedule at finals.  Feel free to bring in a coffee (with a lid) and burn the midnight oil with us.

We Got the Prints

We know many students at Tech only come to the library for the printers.  And that’s ok!  But if you are new, the act of printing can be a little confusing.  Here’s a step-by-step introduction on how to print:

  1. Login to a computer in the General Lab.
  2. Press Ctrl + P or find a Printer Icon to print your academic paper, course schedule, or cute cat pics.
  3. Choose “Dell Universal Print Queue” as your printer and select “Print”
  4. Get up and look for the printer stations. These are separate computers next to a large laser printer.
  5. Login with your Tech Username/Password or simply swipe your ID at the station.  You should see your document ready to print.  You’ll also see the balance on your account and the cost of the job.
  6. If everything looks right, press print.

Prints costs $0.10 a page in black and white, but we also have a color printer that eats up $0.30 a page.  Every student starts with $20 on their account each semester.  But if you run out of money on your account, you can always top it off with cash at the PHIL station, next to Circulation Desk.

If something goes wrong or you can’t find the right printer, friendly staff are standing by on all floors to help with this very thing.

You Can Get a Room

image of bookit chart with red squares indicating booked rooms and green squares indicating free rooms

The Library offers study rooms, multimedia-use rooms, and even an audio lab to record songs, mix music, or narrate video.  Reserve space using our online reservation system, Book It.   The Library has 5 study rooms that can be reserved by any Tech faculty, staff, or student on a first come, first serve basis.

If you need to make a Tegrity recording, reserve one of our Multimedia rooms.  These all-purpose rooms allow you to record yourself taking an exam for instructors, create video or audio presentations, or use interactive software such as Read & Write Gold or Pronunciator.

screenshot of how to book a tegrity room from the Book It dropdown.

If you need to make a podcast or lay down some sick beats, you might want to book some time in our new Audio Lab.  Open to all students, faculty, and staff, the audio lab contains sophisticated software and hardware designed to create professional recordings.   Professional staff are standing by to help you learn the software and make something amazing.

a picture of a woman's hands manipulating a Mini mixing board

We’re All About That (Data)base

Need research?  We have all that in one easy-to-use search:

Screenshot of our find it search engine. There's a blank to search articles, books, and moreSearch and find scholarly articles, books, DVDs, streaming video, or calculators using our search engine for all things Tech Library.  Not sure how to find something in Find It?  See this handy guide for getting the most out of your searches: http://libguides.atu.edu/FindIt

If you need something more specialized, see our list of A-to-Z databases, containing over 200 topical databases for every subject or format need.

We’re Better Than Google

google search result indicating that librarians are the secret masters of the universe.

A search engine will never replace the listening, knowledgeable, and compassionate humans at the Library (at least…not yet).  We have dedicated, friendly staff poised to drop anything to help you succeed.  We thrive on questions, and chase after answers like the professional information hunters that we are.  When you are in need of an answer and don’t know who to call, call us: (855) 761-0006.  We may not always know the answer, but we know the right place to find it.  You can also ask us a question via Ask-A-Librarian or text us at (479) 802-4876.

So come by this semester, either online or in-person, and let us help you find the answers, book a study room, or print your cat pictures.  In the meantime, welcome (back) to Tech and good luck!

 

Stuff @ Circulation

Did you know that DVDs are not the only thing you can check-out at the Ross Pendergraft Library?  The Circulation Desk, located on the first floor, keeps an entire collection of supplies and materials that you can freely borrow for a few hours to power up your late-night study sessions and keep more money in your pocket.

Here’s a few of the things you might want to acquire during the long study nights ahead:

Dry Erase Boards

Dry Erase Boards are Remarkable!

These are brand new, 4 x 3 feet, mobile, magnetic, reversible, and remarkable dry erase boards that you can check out for the low, low price of nothing.  Borrow for two hours, then renew for another two hours, if needed.  They offer large writing space to draw out all your molecular diagrams, musical arrangements, mathematical formulas, and next year’s NCAA basketball brackets.  Pairs well with our dry erase markers.

Dry Erase Markers

set of dry erase markers

What can you do with a dry erase board without dry erase markers?  Don’t find out by borrowing a set of markers at the Circulation Desk.  Each set of markers includes 8, multi-colored thick point markers, 4 black fine-point markers, an eraser, and a bottle of cleaner.  You can check them out for two hours and renew them for another two.

Graphing Calculators

Graphing calculators

Why have computers come down in price, but a graphing calculator still costs the same as it did twenty years ago?  Some mysteries may never be solved, but if you still haven’t saved up the bucks to buy one, and just need a loaner for a few hours, the Library has the TI-83, TI-83 Plus, and the TI-83 Plus Silver available for four hour check-out.  Four hours!  You can renew it for another four, as well, which is probably more time with a graphing calculator than is recommended by the American Psychological Association.

Headphones

Experience two hours of moderately okay sound with our sturdy, pre-sanitized, and surprisingly comfortable headphones.  These headphones have circulated hundreds of times, making them the most popular item available in the library.  Don’t you want to be popular too?  Wear the same headphones as everyone else in the library, and you’re well on your way.

Now, I know what you must be thinking: Free stuff is great, but is there a way I can spend money, too?  There is!  Here are some of the items currently offered at cost to help you avoid a trip to the bookstore or a large 24-hour big-box chain.  (Cash only!)

  • Small Scantrons: $0.20
  • Large Scantrons: $0.40
  • Earbuds: $1.50
  • Helpful customer service from friendly people: Priceless

The Circulation desk—your source for the treasures above and more—operates as long as the library is open (though some of the services are reduced during the wee hours of the open-24-hours-for-finals period).  So when the bookstore is closed, and you don’t have a friend to take you to the store, come see us!  We won’t be your friend or anything (we barely know you), but we can sell you a Scantron and let you borrow our headphones.  Which is kind of like something a friend would do.

Black History Month

This month, the Ross Pendergraft Library highlights some of our newest acquisitions in books, DVDs, and databases to celebrate the achievements of African Americans and document the struggles they have overcome to help make America truly great.

The March: Book One, Book Two, & Book Three
march

Winner of the 2016 National Book Award, the March graphic novel trilogy (Book One, Book Two, & Book Three) tells the story of the Civil Rights movement from the first-hand accounts of Representative John Lewis.  Lewis, now a congressmen serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, was a member of the “Big Six” Civil Rights leaders and helped organize and lead many of the important events of the Civil Rights movement, including the Freedom Summer, the Selma voting rights campaign, the Nashville lunch counter sit-in movement, bus boycotts, and more.  He was an original member of the Freedom Riders, and endured imprisonment, tear gas, and physical beatings so severe that he still bears physical scars to this day.

Selma. As significant as it was, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made NO provision to ensure the rights of African-Americans to register to vote. In more than two years of SNCC-Led work organizing and protesting in Selma, we registered fewer than 100 new voters. And thanks to Judge Hare's Injunction against public gatherings, SNCC's operations in Selma had ground to a halt. Dr. King met with President Johnson in December, shortly after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. They discussed the need for a voting rights act, but president Johnson said it was impossible. The votes in Congress were simply not there. Johnson said, in effect: If you WANT a voting rights act, MAKE me do it. When Dr. King returned to Atlanta, he accepted an invitation from an organization called the Dallas County Improvement Association, requesting SCLS to help the people of Selma.

The March trilogy details many of these events with co-author Andrew Aydin and stunning visual illustration from best-selling artist Nate Powell.   Immerse yourself in this moving, richly drawn and sometimes shocking first-hand account of the Civil Rights Movement from a man who lived in the center of it.  This trilogy and other books are available for check-out at the Black History Display table, just across from the elevators on the first floor.

Kehinde Wiley : A New Republic

Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, a painting by Kehinde Wiley.

Lose yourself in the beauty and detail of Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic–a collection of nearly 60 paintings and sculptures published as a retrospective of his work to coincide with his touring exhibit.  Specializing in naturalistic portraiture of contemporary African Americans in the style of Old Master paintings, Wiley’s works have been shown in the National Portrait Gallery, the Columbus Museum of Art, and in galleries around the world.  Included in the volume are critical essays and full-color paintings and sculpture of African American figures, as well as people from Africa, India, South America, Israel and around the world.

Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps, a painting by Kehinde Wiley

It is a book worth checking out.   Look for it at the Black History Month Display table, just across from the elevators on the first floor.

Race : The incredible true story of gold medal winner, Jesse Owens

Cover of Race DVD featuring Jesse Owens running against a backdrop of Nazi flags

Based on the true story of Jesse Owens, Race is a historical film documenting the life of the most famous track and field athlete in world history.  His four gold medal wins during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin dealt a staggering blow to Hitler’s propaganda of the superiority of Aryan white supremacy, and the world records he set there remained intact for decades after.   The Race is directed by Stephen Hopkins and stars Stephan James as Jesse Owens.  It is available for check-out in the New DVD section on the first floor of the library.

Selma

Cover of Selma featuring actors portraying MLK Jr., Coretta Scott King, and more.

Selma portrays the true story of the 1965 historic voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, during the heart of the Civil Rights movement.  Directed by Ava DuVernay and starring David Oyelwo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Oprah Winfrey and Carmen Ejogo, the film focuses on the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to organize a protest march for the voting rights of African Americans in the segregated South.  This march, and the nationally-televised violent response to it, highlighted racial injustice and helped earn broader support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act.  The film itself has been criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of Lyndon B. Johnson, but has also received wide-spread critical praise including four Golden Globe nominations, and a Best Picture nomination from the Academy Awards.  It is available for check-out in the New DVD section on the first floor of the library.

African American Newspapers Collection

Looking for primary sources in African American History?  Look no further than the African American Newspapers Collection, a database featuring African American newspapers from the nineteenth century.  Read first-hand accounts of major events published in black-owned newspapers.  Titles include The Christian Recorder, The Colored American, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Freedom’s Journal, and more.  Articles range in scope from eye-witness accounts of the Civil War and the horrific conditions of slavery to more mundane announcements like obituaries, personal notices, and poetry. You can search using keywords or browse issues online through our A-to-Z list of Databases or at this direct link.

The masthead for the Frederick Douglass' Paper, November 6, 1851

For more books, films, and databases celebrating Black History Month, ask your friendly neighborhood librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.

A picture of a librarian saying, "My Dear Children, Read. Read Everything". From The March, Book One, p. 4

 

Taking Reservations

Need a room for a small group meeting?  Need a quiet space to study without distractions? The Library has made it easier than ever to grab a study room using our online reservation system, Book It. 

You can reserve a room online at any time from anywhere.  To access the system, go to our library home page and look under Services for the Book It! link.

calendar

From there, click on a time slot or a particular day.  Green boxes indicate that the time is available; red slots indicate reserved times.  (Blue slots are times in the past or periods in which the library is closed).

After clicking a time, confirm your selection.  You will be asked to use your ATU login and password to complete the registration.  Finally, pick a name for your reservation, and you are done.  A confirmation email will be sent to your Tech email along with a calendar reminder and a link for cancellation.

Rooms can be reserved in one hour blocks, up to two hours per day, per person.  You can reserve a room up to two weeks in advance.

Available study rooms include 223, 225-230 on the second floor and rooms 127-128 on the first floor.  For information about the capacity and furniture within each room, hover over the question mark icon on the schedule for descriptions.

calendar2

In addition to study rooms, you can use our online Book It system to reserve times for the new Audio Lab.  To do this, select “Book the Audio Lab” from the drop-down menu.

Audio Lab booking

The Audio Lab can be reserved in two hour slots, with one reservation per day, per person.  Keep in mind, students and staff can only use the Audio Lab for sound recording and/or mixing projects—it is not a study space.

If you have questions, problems, or reservations about the new reservation system, ask your always available librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.   We’ll be happy to help.

Do You Even Science?

The Library has bulked up lately on new, performance-enhancing databases in science and engineering.  Let the library spot you on the following new tools to help bring your research game to the next level:

Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database 

This database from Proquest brings you research in aeronautics, astronautics, computer and information technology, and solid-state materials.  Included are over 26 million abstract and indexed records and full-text articles from over 2,250 publications, including scholarly journals, trade periodicals, reports and conference proceedings.  Coverage goes back to 1962.  Planning a trip to Mars?  This database will help you find the right stuff.

screen shot of article "mars one outlines next astronaut selection steps"

Life Sciences

JSTOR’s Life Sciences database comprises the largest collection of journals in the field sciences and broad coverage in the health sciences.  At more than 160 journals and 8 million pages, the collection is JSTOR’s largest, and coverage spans more than 340 years of science history and research in the sciences.  Find full-text articles in aquatic science, botany, developmental & cell biology, ecology, paleontology, and zoology.  Coverage ranges as far back as the 1600’s, and as far forward as last week.

screenshot of article: an account of part of a collection of curious plants and drugs, lately given to the royal society by the east india company.

Engineering Source 

Build your research paper on solid foundations by using this database for aerospace, biomedical, civil, electrical, environmental, mechanical, and all-other-things engineering.  Includes nearly 1,800 full-text journals, and indexing for more than 3,000 publications.  Content includes scholarly, engineering journals, conference proceedings, books, and trade publications.  Get full-text from top journals like Engineering Management Journal, International Journal of Food Engineering, and Polymers for Advanced Technologies.  Make this your first stop for articles in engineering.

screenshot of article: 7 3d printing Stem projects to do with your class.

Agricultural & Environmental Science Database‎

AGRICOLA, ESPM, and EIS databases are all included in this full-text bonanza of articles from scholarly journals, trade and industry periodicals, conference proceedings and more.  This database covers topics like ecology, biology, bacteriology, atmospheric science, veterinary services, human nutrition, and agricultural economics.

image of Canada geese distribution in Arkansas. There are big blobs all along I-40 corridor, including several in Pope County

Want more? In the last year, we have also added databases such as Materials Science & Engineering Database, Biological Science Database, and Earth, Atmospheric & Aquatic Science Database.  Find these databases and more through our A-Z Databases page.

Have a question about these databases, others like them, or about life, the universe, and everything?  Ask your experimental, laser-powered librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.

Recording in Progress

music-lab

Have you ever wanted to start your own talk show or record and mix your own song?  The Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center would like to invite you to our new state-of-the-art recording studio, located on the second floor in room 204.  The Audio Lab is now open for the entire ATU community to professionally record their podcasts, oral history interviews, bluegrass banjo jams, piano sonatas, film narrations, funky percussion grooves, and other sick beats.

The library’s Music Lab—already home to an impressive collection of CD’s, LP’s, film course reserves, and digital music/video editing software—built this new center as a creative space for students to bring their audio and video projects to life.  The walls have been acoustically treated to keep outside noises out and inside noises in.  Students can bring their own instruments, and those with electric guitars can plug directly into the thunderbolt audio interface without using an amplifier, which are too noisy for the second floor.  In the quiet of the library, users finally have a space to get loud…ish.

The lab features an assortment of high quality recording hardware, such as microphones, a drum pad, keyboards, and a 10-channel mixer.  Users will also have access to audio and video editing software like Adobe Audition, Wavelab, GarageBand, Logic Pro X, iMovie, Adobe Premiere Pro, and more.

audiolab-daw02

Don’t let the high-tech software intimidate you.  Audio lab assistants are standing by to help you navigate the controls and the equipment.  You can also brush up on your video and music editing skills by creating an account with ATU’s Virtual Training Center (VTC).  This service—free to the Tech Community—offers tutorials and video guides to all kinds of video/audio software, including most of the software in the Audio Lab.

Reserve a two hour slot today by contacting Luke Heffley or Lowell Lybarger.  More information about making reservations, lab hours, use guidelines, and more can be viewed at the new Audio Lab website: http://www.atu.edu/audiolab/index.php

For any questions about the Audio Lab, Music Lab, or more, email our expert in all things audio, RPL’s Music Librarian, Dr. Lowell Lybarger.

Pardon Our Progress

It’s now high summer.  The campus is mostly quiet, and the geese are taking full advantage of the lull in student population.

geesewaybetter

But inside the Ross Pendergraft Library, things are shifting and shuffling around.    Big changes are in store for the upcoming fall semester, and the staff here are hard at work managing the multiple projects going on this summer.

One of those projects involves the migration of the Curriculum Materials Library from Crabaugh Hall to the Ross Pendergraft Library.  Over 6,000 volumes of children’s books, teaching materials, and young adult fiction will be integrated into our existing book collection.

The new addition will also include a die-cutter tool for making bulletin boards, a laminating machine, butcher paper, kits, oversize story-books, and more.  A Young Adult Fiction section will be created, as well as a separate collection for teacher preparatory materials, called the Curriculum Library Collection.

In the fall, this space will be ideal for the future teachers of Arkansas to explore a diverse and modern children’s book collection along with a wealth of resources for classroom preparation.

Right now, however, we have some work to do.

clstuffWhen the migration is complete, a full celebration of the new Curriculum Library will be held later in the semester.  But for now, we want to highlight just some of the people doing the hard work to make all of this possible.

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Circulation workers, Amanda and Mackenzie, trying to avoid paper-cuts.

It takes skilled, dedicated, and resourceful people to merge two library collections together in less than a few weeks.  Boxes have to be moved, sorted, unpacked.  Shelves have to be moved and put together.   Heavy boxes, heaved.

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Cheyenne at the Circulation Desk, undaunted by the unlabeled

Incorporating the new books involves cataloging, barcoding, stamping, labeling, re-labeling, shelving, and shifting.  Ultimately, it involves teamwork, precision, patience, and sometimes band-aids.

Beverly Cooper, probably the best ever.

Beverly Cooper—Reference Desk rock star, keeper of the good band-aids—getting another batch ready for the shelves.

It can be tedious, monotonous, and outright boring work.  But the end result is all worth it:

WP_20160729_11_33_15_Pro

If you are looking for children’s books this summer, they are located in the areas directly behind and adjacent to the Periodicals Collection.  As the new books become available, you can find them in our online catalog by refining results on the location, “Youth and Children’s Book Collection.”

Search results for Caldecott in the library collection, limited by Location: Youth and Children's Book Collection.

Kids are always welcome in the library, especially the kid inside us all.  For more information about this new collection, including advice on great children’s books, contact your young-at-heart librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.   We’re here all summer to assist you with your research and reading requests, and we’re sure you’ll find a rainbow of materials to inspire and interest you.  But you don’t have to take *my* word for it…

 

 

There’s a Map for That

Delve into Arkansas History with our latest database collection, “Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970: Arkansas”.  This rich collection of early maps of cities and towns reveal the original footprints of buildings throughout Arkansas.  Sanborn maps were large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn to a scale of 50 feet to an inch.  These were created from 1867 to 2007 to assist fire insurance companies in assessing the risk of fire to various structures and buildings.  Today, they are used for a wide-variety of purposes, particularly for historic research, urban planning, or restoration of older homes and buildings.

A Sanborn map can show you street names, block numbers, sidewalks, railroad tracks, the location of water mains, churches, businesses, windows, doors, and even porches.  These maps–now digitized and available in an easy-to-search, online database—can carry you back in time to show you how a particular place looked over 100 years ago.

The Library owns the Arkansas collection  of digital maps, which include maps on just about every town in the state.  Smaller towns may contain only a few maps, but larger cities, such as Russellville, will contain maps from multiple years, spanning from the mid-1800’s to the mid-1900’s.

sanborn1

Once you have selected a city and a map, download the map for easier navigation and zooming.  There is even an option to print selected areas.

Sanborn map 1886, Russellville

July 1886, Sheet 1. One block on Main Street. The train depot is further left, with what is now Denver Ave. bordering on the bottom. The Central Hotel is now Sportscene.

Googlemaps image of Russellville block, modern day

Same block, circa 2016 Google Maps

Travel back in time today by exploring the Digital Sanborn maps.  For other questions about this resource, the library, or other databases available to you as an Arkansas Tech student, consult your Timelord librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.

Find It Today

The Library is hosting a small celebration of our new discovery tool today from 11:00-2:00, with special instruction sessions occurring each half hour in RPL 300 North.  Join us for cookies, punch, and a little introduction to our new search tool, Find It, now featured on our homepage: http://library.atu.edu/

find it

Use Find It to search scholarly articles, books, ebooks, and DVDs in one place.  Narrow search results with left-hand filters by type, location, full-text, and more.  This interface replaces our library catalog, and indexes all of our Proquest database content, most of our Ebsco content, Web of Science, Jstor, and more.  Our native database interfaces are still available on our A-Z Databases page, but to get quick results in one search, give Find It a try.  We believe this will be a much simpler tool for beginners to find academic resources, but it will also be a more convenient tool for the research pros to quickly find and filter the results they need.

star wars

The Find It tool also includes access to your library account, so you can check on what materials you have currently checked-out, items on hold, or if you have any messages from the Library.  Sign-in with your Tech Username and Password to save searches or add items to an ‘eshelf’ for later browsing and viewing.  If you are off-campus, you will need to sign-in to view search results from Ebsco or Web of Science, since these databases require authentication, even for searching.  If you are on-campus, however, you will automatically see these results.

Drop by today at 11, 11:30, or every thirty minutes until the last session at 1:30 to learn a little more about the interface (or to simply grab some cookies in the library lobby).   There will also be PRIZES at the demos!  Come for the cookies, punch, and prizes–stay for the knowledge bombs.