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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Free Lee Documentary

Posted on July 14, 2015 Written by

While you are waiting to get your hands on Harper Lee’s latest novel, Go Set a Watchman, satisfy your Atticus Finch cravings with the pre-release of a new documentary called “Harper Lee: From Mockingbird to Watchman,” available online and streaming through the Kanopy collection for one week only.   Kanopy Streaming Video is the Arkansas Tech Library’s latest partner in online films.   Director Mary McDonah Murphy sifts through the facts and speculation surrounding Lee and both her novels.  It includes interviews with Lee’s older sister, close friends, and literary admirers, from Oprah Winfrey to Wally Lamb.

To watch this documentary, available from today until July 20th, click this link: https://libcatalog.atu.edu/login?url=http://atu.kanopystreaming.com/node/110173 or search our library catalog for this film, other streaming films, and old fashioned books by and about Harper Lee.

 

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Shift & Change

Posted on June 8, 2015 Written by

The first floor of the Ross Pendergraft Library is undergoing some substantial changes this summer.  In order to modernize our collection, add more study space, and create a more attractive environment, we’re weeding, shifting, moving, and condensing many of our book collections.  Here are just a few of the changes already happening or soon to begin on the first floor:

Law Books Are Going…Going…Gone

The first floor of the library used to be the home of many legal materials from the Pope County Law Library.  However, most of those books are now out of date, difficult to search, and available online through our LexisNexis database.  Therefore, we have removed those items from our library.  We still have the Arkansas Code, Acts of the General Assembly of the state of Arkansas, West’s Arkansas cases, and other locally important legal volumes in our Reference Collection.  For help locating legal resources, please see the helpful staff at our Reference Desk.  Be aware, however, that we do not provide legal advice.

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Oversized Books Have Moved Upstairs

The library’s super-sized books, which used to be behind the Reference Collection on the first floor, have moved upstairs to the second floor in the Compact Shelving Area, next to Periodicals.  Our regular book shelves just can’t handle these monster-sized behemoths, and so they have to be moved to a separate area.   Compact Shelving offers deeper shelves to accommodate the sizes and closer proximity to the rest of the book collection.  You’ll find many of our larger art books or graphic novels in this area, but almost any book over 30 centimeters will be found here.   In the catalog, these books will appear as the location “OVERSIZED” in the online catalog.  Here’s a handy map, pointing the way to their new home:  http://library.atu.edu/help/AZ/2-compact_shelving.php

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Library employee Darren Dunn grapples with his bibliophobia through exposure therapy

 

Reference Inches Backwards

We are currently shifting the Reference Collection back where the Pope County Law Library Collection used to reside.  These are on the first floor, just around the corner from the Reference Desk.  Our Reference Collection contains almanacs, thesauri, specialized encyclopedias, guidebooks, and other items designed to serve as a quick reference and general overviews of most subjects.  These books can be used in the library, but they cannot be checked out.  This shift is still in progress, so if you can’t find what you are looking for, just ask the friendly (and mostly stationary) staff at the Reference Desk.

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Periodicals Consolidated

Since many of our paper periodicals have transitioned to online only formats, searchable in our e-resources page, we have started to consolidate titles closer together.  This will allow us to remove the excess stacks in order to expand casual seating.   Look for these changes later in the summer.  Stay tuned!

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For questions about these changes, or about anything else in the library, email your friendly neighborhood librarians.  We’ll be here all summer, during our usual summer hours.   Keep checking back for more updates as we continue to make changes to the library.

 

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Up All Night

Posted on April 24, 2015 Written by

Beginning Sunday, April 26th, the library will open at 2:00 P.M. and will not close until Friday, May 1st, at 6:00 P.M.  That’s right—24 hour service for finals is BACK!

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Here’s a little Q & A about finals week:

Q. Will there be coffee again?

A. YES!

Q. Will there be food, too?

A. YES!

Q. Will there be highly caffeinated librarians answering your frantic, last-minute questions at 3:00 a.m.??

A.  Oh, you know there will be!

Some of you may recall the library inaugurated its first 24 hour service period last semester.   During that week of finals, the library averaged 74 people a night between the hours of midnight and six in the morning.  On one particularly busy night, we had 187 people in the library at midnight—having group meetings, finishing up papers, & occasionally falling asleep in chairs.  You can read more about last semester’s trial run here.

To stay on top of announcements, or to share your photos, comments, and random thoughts at 4:00 a.m., follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

We plan to offer the same services as last semester.  Keep in mind, however, the Music Lab, Inter-library Loan service, and some circulation services will not be available.  We will still be able to offer basic check-in/check-out, but no fine repayments or new library applications after midnight.

But if you just need a quiet place to study, a table to gather around, some emergency citation help, or just a cup of coffee during the wee hours of finals, come join us in the library.  Don’t worry, we’ll leave the light on.

 

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We’re Open!

Posted on April 17, 2015 Written by

Since the inauguration has moved to Tucker Coliseum on Friday, April 17th, the library will remain open during our regular hours, from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. After you finish attending the inauguration, come by the library and check out our new arrivals…literally!

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Here’s a brief snapshot of the titles most recently inaugurated into our collection:

FICTION BOOKS

 NON-FICTION BOOKS

FILMS

Want to stay on top of new items?  Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.  You can also check out our growing list of new items by clicking the “Open Your Mind” logo in the top right corner of the library homepage.  We also have a breakdown of new titles by department & month on our Libguide for new books (including e-books).  If you happen to be in the library, proceed immediately to the first floor, south entrance where you’ll find the latest & greatest new books:

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Keep checking back for more new stuff, new “news”, as well as old, awful puns.

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On Trial

Posted on April 14, 2015 Written by

The Library is currently sampling a buffet of new databases.  Feast on the following collections:

  • RILM Abstracts of Music Literature: This comprehensive music bibliography covers many subjects such as ethnomusicology, composition, dramatic arts, music librarianship, music pedagogy, music therapy, performance practice and popular music studies.  Content spans from 1967 to the present, and includes over 800,000 records in 171 different languages.  This trial ends June 30th.
  • SPIE Digital Library: This database contains the world’s largest collection of optics and photonics research with over 400,000 papers from conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journals and eBooks, with content spanning 1962 to present.  Includes full-text, images, multimedia, abstracts, and more.  Browse the topic collections to quickly catch up on the latest research in fields ranging from Astronomy to Sensors.  Explore this resource soon before the trial expires on May 12th.

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Like what you see?  Have other databases you want us to trial?  Let us know at askalibrarian@atu.edu.

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Party at the Library

Posted on April 13, 2015 Written by

The Library is throwing a party, and you’re invited.  Come visit us on Tuesday, April 14, at 11:00 to celebrate National Library Week and the Library’s 90th year as a federal depository for government documents.  

PS: there will be free cake. 

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National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association to celebrate the contributions of libraries and to promote library use and support.  Libraries around the country are hosting their own celebrations, raising awareness about their importance and calling attention to their sometimes endangered status.

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At Ross Pendergraft Library, we’re using this as an opportunity celebrate our own milestone: 90 years as a federal depository library.  The Federal Depository Library Program was established by Congress nearly 200 years ago to ensure the American public has free and unrestricted access to information published by the government.  The Government Printing Office distributes this information, in both paper and electronic formats, to selected libraries around the country.

Since 1925, the ATU Library has participated in this program, and today, we currently hold over 119,000 federal documents.  To find government publications including the Budget of the United States Government, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and much more, search our online catalog. 

Most of our documents are located online, but we also have many publications in print located in the US documents section on the second floor of the Library.  For additional help locating these important resources, contact our esteemed government documents librarian, Frances Hager. 

For all other inquiries about National Library Week, the Federal Depository Program, or the flavor of the cake, send us an email at askalibrarian@atu.edu.  You can also be the first to know the next time we throw down by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.  See you at the party!

 

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Libflix

Posted on February 27, 2015 Written by

Netflix not enough?  Try grabbing a movie or a television series from the Ross Pendergraft Library Music Lab.  We have new releases, award-winning documentaries, hit TV shows,  as well as foreign and independent films you cannot find on most streaming movie sites.  Start your search with our revised Music Lab website.

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We now have a new way to browse movies using our DVD Collection page.  Browse the latest DVDs by language or category.  Our collection includes animated, action & adventure films, musicals, romantic comedies, horror, science fiction, and more.

You can also browse ALL our newly acquired DVDs at the New DVD Titles page.  Binge watch the latest seasons of Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, Homeland, Modern Family, True Blood, & the Walking Dead.  Skip the Red Box and check-out new releases like the Fault in Our Stars, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Cosmos, the Lego Movie, Maleficent, & Warm Bodies for free from the Library. Search our Online Library Catalog for specific titles, directors, actors, keyword, or subject.

Can’t make it out to the library?  Check out our new Video Streaming Collections page.  Each link contains collections of streaming video, short films, television shows, interviews, and clips.   Enjoy award-winning documentaries from PBS Video Collection, travel back in time through the Archive of American Television, or attempt to stomach the surgical videos available from the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons.

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Have a video or video collection you want to suggest for the library?  Send us your flick picks at askalibrarian@atu.edu.

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