On Trial

Posted on February 17, 2016 Written by

If you want to keep better tabs on congressional representatives, check out the Library’s newest database trial: CQ Press Congress Collection.  From now until February 20th, the Ross Pendergraft Library is hosting a trial of this new reference tool enabling users to find biographical, political, and electoral data on every member of Congress since 1945.  Research floor votes, search full legislation text, and see statistical data, legislative analysis, Supreme Court case summaries and more with this easy-to-use platform.

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For political science junkies, this tool can provide fast facts about current Congressional members, as well as in-depth details on past members.  Analyze and export voting data by state, religious affiliation, gender, and more.

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Not really up to speed on the political progress?  The Congress Collection includes a Congressional Dictionary, Congressional Encyclopedia, list of important public policy issues by topic, and comprehensive overviews of how Congress works.

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Vote for or against this collection by emailing your friendly neighborhood librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.  Your voices make a difference in your library, so make them count.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: ,

Find It Today

Posted on January 21, 2016 Written by

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/

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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.

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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.

 

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Not-So-Silent Nights

Posted on December 11, 2015 Written by

As finals wind down and thoughts return to the upcoming holidays, nothing sets the mood better than music.  Arkansas Tech students, faculty, and staff can stream holiday music, commercial free, through the Library’s online streaming music collection, Naxos Music Library.

This streaming music database contains over 1.7 million full-length musical recordings and more than 100,000 albums.  The bulk of the collection is made up of classical music, but you can find many blues, jazz, folk, and international music recordings as well.

Search by title, author, composer, or other keyword for specific selections, or browse by various genres, including Blues, Jazz, Pop, Gospel, World, and Instrumental.  Naxos has even gone to the trouble to create playlists centered around themes, films & television, instrument style, and yes Virginia, even holidays.  Navigate to the Naxos Music Library Playlists–>Holidays and Special Occasions to select from one of four Christmas music playlists.

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If those playlists don’t get the job done, create your own playlists by signing up for a student account within the Naxos Music Library database.  Once logged in, you can add songs and entire albums into your playlist.

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Worried about being tied down to the desktop?  Download the mobile app for Naxos and stream music from anywhere—even on your way to grandma’s house.

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Additionally, check out the Naxos Spoken Word Library–our collection of 6,700 hours of streaming spoken word content.  Get a fire going and listen to the unabridged, full-cast radio production of Charles Dickens’s, A Christmas Carol.  There’s also an anthology of Christmas stories, music, recipes, sermons and carols called The Christmas Collection.

But if you just want to hear Benedict Cumberbatch perform in the Tempest, you can do that, too.

Cumberbatch smiling, dreamily

We hope you enjoy the well-deserved break over the holidays.  The Library will begin reduced winter interim hours on Wednesday, Dec. 16 through Dec. 23rd.  We will be closed from Thursday, Dec. 24th through Sunday, January 3rd.  The reduced hours continue until classes resume on January 11th.  See our full schedule of hours at the library website.

For questions about the Naxos Music Library, Naxos Spoken Word Library, or suggestions for great holiday music, contact your festive librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.   Have a great winter break, and may your days be merry and bright.

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Club Pendy Open 24/4

Posted on December 4, 2015 Written by

Come get your study on at the Ross Pendergraft Library the week of Dec. 6th-Dec. 11th as we go 24-hours for finals.  This year marks the third semester of remaining open all night long, and if you haven’t taken advantage of our extended hours, you are probably studying in the wrong place…or sleeping.  As always, we provide the coffee–you provide the dedication and fortitude to plow through those papers and late-night study sessions.

The complete schedule is as follows:

  • Sunday, Dec. 6th: Open at 2:00 PM

  • Friday, Dec. 11th: Close at 9:00 PM

We will hold to our regular hours from Saturday, Dec. 12 to Monday, Dec. 14.  After that, we will throttle it back down to interim hours (closing early on Tuesday, Dec. 15th, at 6:00 PM with an 8:00 to 5:00 schedule thereafter until classes begin next semester).

During finals, we plan to offer the same services we normally do, except that the Music Lab, Inter-Library Loan office, and certain circulation services will be unavailable late at night.  You will still be able to check-out materials, return items, borrow headphones, and ask Reference questions.  However, no fine payments or new library applications will be accepted after midnight.

We would also like to take the time to remind students of some of our policies and helpful hints for late-night studying at the library:

  • Keep in mind you are not allowed to eat in the library, and there will be no food provided for finals this year.  We do apologize, but we had some messy eaters in the past, and this created a trash problem. If we catch you with food, you will be told to take it outside or hand it over to the staff because we are seriously starving by three AM.
  • Also, please do not put up your bare feet on the tables.  Sometimes students illegally eat off those tables.
  • We believe students should get plenty of rest before their final exams.  That’s why we only offer coffee to students without exams the next day, who just want a little help to stay up late and watch cat videos on the internet.
  • If you fall asleep in the library, please don’t snore or drool on the tables.  It is too sore a temptation for the librarians to prank you.
  • We urge you to not sleep on the floors.  The excellent custodial staff frequently come around to vacuum early in the morning, and they hate it when sleeping students get stuck in their machines.
  • If you need last-minute, peer-reviewed scholarly articles, by all means, use our excellent collection of academic databases.  Just promise not to tell the other students you can access them from home.  Then no one would want to visit us, and who would drink all this coffee?
  • Come to the Reference Desk and tell us when you need help.  There’s no need to openly weep alone.  Besides, it upsets the other library patrons.

Good luck to all taking finals this year, and remember to send us an email, keep up with us on Facebook, or follow us @ATULibrary for news, announcements, or pictures of the library study scene during finals.

lando

Filed Under: Library

Fact-check with Statista

Posted on November 13, 2015 Written by

Trying to prove your point?  Do it with pictures, colors, charts, graphs, and numbers in Statista.  Visualize complex data by exploring this easy-to-use new database from the Library.  You can find Statista from our Library homepage, under Tech Databases.

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Many databases accessible in the Library collection are comprised of articles, abstracts, or, in some cases, ebooks and video. In contrast, this database consists of statistical facts and figures delivered as eye-catching, straight-to-the-point graphs and charts.

Statista uses information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, Gallup, Nielson, ComScore, and more than 18,000 other sources to build relevant, simple data sets and reports.  While most results center on business-related topics, students with any research subject will be blown away by the wealth of information on media, society, and politics.

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Statista also features over 1,000 industry reports and more than 3,000 market studies, including market forecasts for 42 countries and over 400 industries.  It also includes hundreds of infographics, painting visually appealing pictures out of complicated data.  Statista knows that seeing the data can be much easier—and more convincing—than simply reading the numbers on a page.

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Statista makes it easier to share that information, too.  Download charts and graphs as Powerpoint slides, Excel charts, image files, or PDFs.  Every chart displays the source of the information, as well as a citation generator* to easily cut and paste references into your bibliography.

To find statistics on a wealth of topics, use the simple search interface on the home screen or browse by topic, industry, country or digital markets.  Filter results by publication, category, or region.  Each result also recommends similar statistics to keep you supplied with more paths to finding facts.

So get your facts straight by heading straight for Statista.  You can also contact the original fact-checkers, your local librarians, at askalibrarian@atu.edu, for help with this database, any database, data, or bases.

*Always check automatic citation generators against official style guides. 

 

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Atom Age Apocalypse

Posted on November 5, 2015 Written by

If living in close proximity to a nuclear power plant has made you paranoid of atomic, mutated arthropods, you won’t want to miss Mike Bogue’s presentation entitled, “Atom Age Apocalypse: Mutants, Monsters, and Mushroom Clouds.”

The presentation will be on November 12th, in Ross Pendergraft Library, Room 300 at 7:00 P.M.

Picture of Them! DVD cover

Mike, an alumnus of Arkansas Tech University, will present a tribute to the 1950’s science fiction movies that inspired the works of such film-making giants as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

Mike worked on the Russellville Campus of Arkansas Tech University from 1993 to 2011, and is currently Coordinator of Student Success on the Ozark Campus.  His work has appeared in Scary Monsters Magazine, G-FAN, Castle of Frankenstein, Wonder, Space & Time, The Lookout, and Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monsters vs. the World.  He lead a speaker’s panel at the 2014 national G-Fest (Godzilla) convention in Chicago, IL.  He also recently published a book titled Atomic Drive-In (also available at the Library).

If you want to start preparing for the lecture (or the apocalypse / giant reptile attack), the Ross Pendergraft Library has a selection of 1950’s science fiction movies waiting to grab you:

picture of The Blob's DVD cover

Or, if you want to view in bulk, the Sci-Fi Classics collection features 50 classic, science fiction movies on 12 discs.  Remember, all our DVDs have relocated to the first floor for easier browsing.

For more information about the presentation or our film collection, contact the atomic librarians from outer space at askalibrarian@atu.edu or 479-964-0569.

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Human Library

Posted on October 30, 2015 Written by

From November 3rd to November 5th, the Ross Pendergraft Library, in cooperation with the Department of Diversity & Inclusion, will host three page-turning presentations to introduce the Arkansas Tech community to our new Human Library program.

  • November 3rd: “Four Blacks at Tech” by Barbara Lackey
  • November 4th: “My Disability Doesn’t Define My Ability” by Bshaer Alharazi
  • November 5th: “Zack, the Deaf Trans” by Zack Stone

All presentations will begin at 10:00 am in RPL 326.

The Human Library program, now an international movement, allows readers to check out a human “book” at designated times for a 30 minute conversation, including 10 additional minutes for questions.  The books are living, breathing people who have overcome challenges of prejudice, social injustice, stereotypes, or disability.  Readers are encouraged to ask the book questions and have meaningful conversations about difficult subjects like race, gender identification, disability, sexual orientation, or religion.   The ultimate goal is to help people learn about the life and experiences of an individual who may have been stereotyped, misunderstood, or avoided, in an effort to promote greater understanding and compassion in our communities.

Drop by our presentations to learn more about our Human Library, or check out a human book today.  They are available for one-on-one conversations or smaller classes (up to 15 students) to allow for a more casual and safe environment.  Call 479-964-0571 or sign up for a time-slot at the Reference Desk to reserve one of our books.  You can also send us an email at askalibrarian@atu.edu to request a time or ask additional questions about the program.

Become more well-read about life—check out a book from our Human Library today.

human library

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Thursday Night Frights

Posted on October 26, 2015 Written by

Join us at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center this Thursday, October 29th, at 7:00 PM for “Haunted Sites at Arkansas Tech University,” a lecture showcasing spooky stories and folklore surrounding historic buildings on campus.  Our guest speaker, Shelle Stormoe, serves as the Education Outreach Coordinator at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.  She will not only discuss haunted sites here at Tech, but also other ghost stories from campuses around the state.

The lecture will take place in room 300 South.  For more information, call 479-964-0569 or email us at askalibrarian@atu.edu

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On Trial

Posted on September 28, 2015 Written by

If you love and need primary sources in your academic life, the Ross Pendergraft Library is currently sampling two new databases on 18th and 19th century digital works for a limited time.

18th Century Collection Online

Search over 180,000 books published during the century in which the United States and France waged wars for independence while wearing leggings.  Find full-text, primary sources on science, literature, religion, law, fine arts, history, and more.  Because the database contains digital reproductions, you will find more than mere full-text.  Browse illustrated works on anatomy, botany, agriculture, and physics.  Read Gulliver’s Travels, Wealth of Nations, the Federalist Papers, and more classics in their original typeface and funky fonts.

*That* Isaac Newton

Newton, Isaac, Sir. Opticks: or, a treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. Also two treatises of the species and magnitude of curvilinear figures. London, MDCCIV. [1704] p.158.

19th Century U.S. Newspapers

For resources more focused on the events of the nineteenth century, including the Civil War, explore the 19th Century U.S. Newspaper database.  Like the resource above, this collection features full-text, digital reproductions of content, including advertisements, illustrations, and classified ads.  However, the database consists entirely of United States newspapers from the 1800’s–a rich resource for primary sources on significant events which shaped our country such as the Trail of Tears, the abolition movement, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, European immigration, the gold rush, and the settlement of the American West.

You will also find full-text articles and newspaper issues of the Arkansas Gazette, the Little Rock Republican, and other Arkansas newspapers, featuring a wealth of information about the people, culture, life, and history of early Arkansas.

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These databases can both be found on the library’s website–>Research–>Tech Databases page (check the # section).  To search these databases simultaneously, select the Artemis Primary Sources Database.

Like what you see?  Let us know at askalibrarian@atu.edu.  Your input helps us build our collection based on your academic needs and interests.  But hurry–the trial for these two resources ends on October 23.

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Free-Range DVDs

Posted on July 23, 2015 Written by

Get your summer flicks fix at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center by checking out our video collection, recently relocated to the first floor.  No longer locked away in cabinets in the Music Lab, the DVDs are free of their confines, available for easy browsing by genre, and sitting on the low shelves across from the computers.

Low shelves full of amazing DVDs!

While students, faculty, and staff have always been able to search our collection via the online catalog, with over 6,000 videos to choose from, it’s not easy see every available title through our present interface.  With the entire collection downstairs, however, you can now enjoy the truly retro experience of scanning your eyes across the DVD cases, even reading the film summaries on the back of the cases, to pick the perfect compliment to your research project, class, or homework-free Saturday night.

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In addition to improving visual access to this collection, we have also improved the circulation time for undergraduate and graduate students.  The library has extended the check-out period for DVDs from 3 days to 7 days for current undergraduate students, and from 3 days to 14 days for graduate students.  Additionally, all students, faculty, and staff may renew their videos at least once without accruing late fees.  To renew online (including books and other items), login to your library account using your T number and last name.  You can also renew in person at the Circulation Desk, located on the first floor of the Library.

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To get started on your summer binge-watching, make sure you have a current library application on file at the Circulation Desk (students must renew once every semester; faculty and staff need only apply once when they are hired).  Then, you may use your Tech ID as a library card to start borrowing from our rich collection of new releases, classic cinema, engaging documentaries, spellbinding animation, terrifying horror, and award-winning television dramas.

For questions about this collection or our DVD circulation policies, contact our own librarian movie star, Lowell Lybarger.

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