Archives for February 2017

International Film Fest

From February 28th through March 16th, the Ross Pendergraft Library will be hosting the second annual International Film Festival.  For the next three weeks, join us every Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, at 7:00 P.M. in RPL 300N to watch a critically acclaimed film from around the world.   Each film counts as an On Track event in the Global Focus area, and was sponsored by the English & World Languages Department and the Ross Pendergraft Library.  Who says world travel has to be expensive?  Take a trip and never leave campus with these exotic foreign language films:

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Luther (2003, English)

During the early 16th Century idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.  Filmed in Germany and the U.S., this film is entirely in English—no subtitles necessary.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

El Orfanato / The Orphanage (2007, Spanish)

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.  This thriller was filmed in Spain and includes English subtitles.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Les Intouchables / The Intouchables (2012, French)

In this comedic drama, a quadriplegic aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver, and ends up getting much more.  Nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA award in 2013, this critically acclaimed French film explores issues of class differences, disability, notions of family, and cultural divides.  The opening also includes arguably the best car chase scene ever filmed with a Maserati.  French with English subtitles

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Children of Heaven (1997, Persian)

After a boy loses his sister’s pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can’t, he tries a new way to “win” a new pair.  Director Majid Majidi focuses on the details of everyday life to touch on universal themes of family, empathy, friendship, sibling loyalty, and childhood joy.  This film was originally filmed in Iran, and was the first Iranian film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.   In Persian with English subtitles.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Dreams (1990, Japanese)

A collection of eight short tales based upon the actual dreams of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.  Elements of the film include surrealistic images and stories about nuclear disasters, World War II, childhood memories, and demon-filled nightmares.  Watch for a younger Martin Scorsese portraying Vincent Van Gogh with George Lucas providing some of the visual effects.  In Japanese with English subtitles.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

English Vinglish (2012, English & Hindi)

Get your dose of Bollywood in this comedy about a quiet, sweet tempered housewife who endures small slights from her well-educated husband and daughter every day because of her inability to speak and understand English.  Featuring popular Indian actress Sridevi, this film marks her successful comeback to the world of Bollywood film.  In English and Hindi, with English subtitles.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

La Misma Luna / Under the Same Moon  (2007, Spanish)

A young Mexican boy travels to the U.S. to find his mother after his grandmother passes away, while his mother makes the same desperate attempt to reunite.  This heart-warming adventure story shows how love can break through any border and any wall.  Nominated for an Image Award in 2009.  In Spanish with English subtitles.

 

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Babel (2006, 8 languages)

Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving four different families.  Starring Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Gael García Bernal & Elle Fanning, this drama features voices speaking in languages from all over the world–English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Russian, Berber, Arabic, and even Japanese sign language.  It won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, and received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and two for Best Supporting Actress.  It also won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Remember, every film starts at 7:00 P.M. at the Ross Pendergraft Library, room 300 North.  While you cannot bring food, drinks are welcome with a lid.

Have more questions about the films?  Contactez vos bibliothécaires or comuníquese con sus bibliotecarios or contact your librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.   If you like these films and want to see more, be sure to browse our vast DVD collection, featuring many French, Spanish, and other foreign language films using our DVD genre guide: http://www.atu.edu/musiclab/DVDgenres.php

In the meantime, we’ll see you at the movies!

Google Scholar and You

If you are a student at Arkansas Tech University, you may have experimented with Google Scholar.  Maybe you heard about it from your friends or tried it once at a party.  Maybe you saw results for “scholarly articles” within a regular Google result and decided to click on it, just to see what it was like.

screen shot of google scholar results

This gateway drug of academic resources can appear like harmless fun—a way to quickly find scholarly journal articles in the same way you can find chicken tikka masala recipes and advice for disobedient cats.  But you may not be aware of the pro’s and con’s of this addictive source of scholarly research.  Let the Ross Pendergraft library help you get your facts straight about Google Scholar.

skillet full of academic research journals

PRO’S

  1. Size: The exact number and sources for Google Scholar indexing is unknown, but one study concluded that it indexes over 160 million documents 1.  This makes it one of the largest academic databases around.  Another study estimated that Google Scholar covers about 87% of all scholarly documents accessible on the web in English 2.  For most academic resource searching, Google Scholar can make a quick, one-stop research trip.
  2. Ease of Use: If you are unsure where to go to find scholarly articles, then Google Scholar makes a lot of sense. It covers multiple disciplines such as science, literature, nursing, behavioral sciences, and more. Finding Google Scholar is as simple as Googling it.  Searching is free and includes no login restrictions.   One search box makes the interface simple to use.  Advanced search, if needed, is also simple.  Just click on the arrow in the search box, and another window allows you to search by author, words in the title, and date-ranges.
  3. another view of advanced google scholar advanced google scholarConnects to ATU Library: Google Scholar enables you to select a ‘home’ library to connect resources you find in Google Scholar with full-text access through the Ross Pendergraft Library. In Google Scholar, open Settings, and click on Library Links. In the search box, type in “ATU” or “Ross Pendergraft Library” or “Tech”.  Click the checkbox and save:

Screenshot showing library links in the google Scholar settings

If the articles within your search results are available in full-text at the Ross Pendergraft Library, you will see a link on the right for “Find it At Tech”.

screenshot showing how to connect google scholar to tech resources

CON’S

  1. No “Peer-Reviewed” Button: Most of the databases you find through the library (such as Find It, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, ERIC, etc.) include the ability to narrow results by peer-reviewed articles.  This is important to help you drill down to original research that meets the highest of academic standards.  While much of Google Scholar contains peer reviewed articles, a lot of it can be conference proceedings, unpublished scholarly articles, master’s theses, legal summaries, blog posts, and book citations.  So how do you separate the peer-reviewed articles from non-peer-reviewed articles?  There’s no really easy way, unless you are familiar with the publications.  You can also copy and paste the article title in our Find It database, then filter by the Peer-Review buttons there.  But if you have to go through all that, why not just start from Find It in the first place?
  2. screenshot of "peer-review' selection in Find ItNot Everything You Find is Free: While Google Scholar can index a lot of content, much of it is only available via the publisher for purchase. The title links (left-side) will lead you to the publisher website while the links on the right, if available, will lead you to the free PDF available at open-access sites like Research Gate or through the library’s site through “Find it at Tech”.  If you click on the title-level links, the publisher’s website will offer a PDF download for a price, probably between $30-$35.  NEVER PAY!  If you are a student at Arkansas Tech and the article is not available for immediate download in our Find It database, use the Interlibrary Loan service to quickly obtain the article from another library.  No purchase necessary.
  3. Limited Advanced Searching and Inaccuracy: Sure, you can search by words in author and words in the title, but you cannot search or limit results by more sophisticated means like subject searching.  You also can’t limit results to available full-text. The databases in the library, however, offer a variety of tools to help narrow down or make your searches more efficient and precise.  Library databases have indexing done by professional human beings who can assign controlled subject terms and provide quality control.  Google Scholar uses web crawlers to extract data from the publisher websites, and sometimes this data is either incorrect, attributed to the wrong author, or completely false.

Ultimately, Google Scholar can be useful as a source of scholarly information, but it does have its drawbacks.  The resources available at the library website like Find It can be your best bet for accessing full-text, peer-reviewed resources available to you as a tuition-paying student.

Craving more information about Google Scholar and scholarly articles?  Contact your research dealers and knowledge pushers at askalibrarian@atu.edu.  Ask your librarian if Google Scholar is right for you.

 

1Orduña-Malea, E.; Ayllón, J.M.; Martín-Martín, A.; Delgado López-Cózar, E. (2014). About the size of Google Scholar: Playing the numbers. EC3 Working Papers, 18(23). Retrieved from: https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.6239

2Khabsa, M., Giles, C.L. (2014). The number of scholarly documents on the public web. PLOS ONE, 9(5), 1-6. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093949

 

 

 

On Trial

This week only, the Ross Pendergraft Library is hosting a database trial for Marketline Advantage.

Picture of MarketLine Advantage search page

This collection of business resources include:

  • Databases enabling users to create customized tables and reports, including market share, forecasts, country statistics, and investment information.
  • Current & in-depth country reports using PESTLE & PEST analysis
  • 6,600 EXTENSIVE industry profiles which include market value, market volume, and market share.
  • 100,000 company profiles, many with SWOT analysis and financial overviews
  • More coverage of international economies and industries
  • Over 450 case studies in business
  • “Ask an Analyst” service—ask business analyst expert questions and get a response within 48 hours

One of the best features of this database is the ability to create customized reports on business statistical data.  Below is a generated graph of nominal GDP for the United State, China, and Mexico between 2006-2016:

A graph demonstrating nominal GDP for China, Mexico and the U.S. It displays the GDP growth rate as well as the GDP in trillions

MarketLine Advantage. (2017). [Line chart on Country Statistics Database, Feb. 14, 2017]. Country Statistics Database. Retrieved from https://advantage.marketline.com/PremiumTools

If you aren’t sure what statistics you need, browse the country, industry, and company reports to quickly gather specific information you need:

Table of key U.S. fundamentals, including GDP, unemployment rate, and more

For business students wanting to pour over in-depth statistics and economic ratios or just looking to gather quick facts, take advantage of the current trial and tell us your thoughts.  Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Confused by it? Let us know at askalibrarian@atu.edu. Your feedback is vital to shape the kind of databases and collections the library acquires.  If there’s something we don’t have and you think we should, let us know that, too.  We want to be sure we are getting the right tools to ensure academic success of our students, faculty, and staff.

If you want to take Marketline Advantage for a spin, you should hurry!  The trial ends on Friday, February 17th.

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