Library — Page 2

Voter Registration Forms At The Library

Posted on September 18, 2024 Written by Angela Black

The 2024 elections in the United States will be held on November 5th, and if you are not yet registered to vote or updated your voter registration, the Ross Pendergraft Library can help. We have voter registration forms available on the first floor, at the RESEARCH HELP DESK.

Photograph of a box of Voter Registration applications, an FAQ of voter registrations, and a QR code to the website Arkansas Voter View

To get registered and ready to perform your civic duty, simply grab a form, fill it out, slap a stamp on it, and drop it off at the nearest post office. The campus post office is located across from Tucker Coliseum, next to Doc Bryan. You can also turn it in directly to the County Clerk’s office at the Pope County courthouse.

Your voter registration must be turned in or postmarked by October 7th. If you are just changing your current registration to a new address, it must be received no later than 4 days prior to the next election.

If you are a college student and registered in your hometown in another county or state, you can transfer your registration to your college address. Just fill out the voter registration form with your campus current address and fill out the portion at the bottom indicating your former address. You must keep your address CURRENT on your registration, so don’t forget to fill out another voter registration form if you reside in another county or state after graduation. You can also vote absentee for your home state or county.

Remember, filling out the form and mailing it off does not mean you are automatically registered. Before considering yourself a registered voter, you must receive an acknowledgment of your registration from the county clerk–usually this arrives in the mail as a card a few weeks after you have mailed or dropped off the form.

Not sure if you are registered? Can’t remember your polling place? Want to know what’s on the ballot in YOUR local elections? You can find your registration status, voting locations, and sample ballots at https://www.voterview.ar-nova.org/voterview/.

Who can register to vote? Any U.S. citizen who is 18 years old or will turn 18 on or before the next Election Day can register. You must also not be a convicted felony with an undischarged/pardoned sentence or a person judged mentally incompetent by a court.

If you are interested in voting, but not sure about the candidates or issues, here’s a list of sites and resources providing nonpartisan information on Arkansas and National elections on November 5th:

Arkansas Ballot Issues – A project of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service to provide nonpartisan fact sheets and education information about proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution. They also publish an easy-to-read guide for voter education in Arkansas.
Arkansas elections, 2024 Ballotpedia — A free, searchable site for candidates, offices, ballot measures for Arkansas.
Candidate Information from Secretary of State – The Secretary of State’s interactive search for all candidates who filed as a candidate for the current election. You can search by candidate, contest, location, as well as past election results.
Vote Smart – A non-profit, non-partisan site devoted to providing information primarily about candidates including positions, voting history, campaign finances, interest group rates, speeches, and public statements.
Arkansas Secretary of State Elections — State website featuring information on voting, elections, filing for office, and past election results.

For more information on voter registration, voting instructions, or great book recommendations on American civics, ask us at: askus@atu.libanswers.com. Remember, sometimes the path to changing the world often begins by filling out a form.

Illustration depicting someone putting a piece of paper with the word "VOTE" into a box with stars. It says on the poster: "Register Today for a better tomorrow.

Designed by John Hornsby for the AIGA Get Out the Vote Campaign 2024. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Voter Registration

Somebody’s Knocking at RPL Tonight

Posted on September 17, 2024 Written by Angela Black

Join us at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center for author and former KATV reporter, Jason Pederson, at 6:00 PM in RPL 300B. This event is free and open to the public.

Pederson is the author of Somebody’s Knocking: Lessons Learned from a Quarter Century of TV Reporting. The book recounts his work as KATV’s “7 on Your Side” reporter from 1999-2019. It was a role that allowed Pederson to investigate alleged bad actors and advocate for Arkansans who felt they had been wronged.

After a 26-year career in television, Pederson left KATV in 2019 to work for the Arkansas Department of Human Services. He is the agency’s deputy chief of community engagement and works to ensure that Arkansans are aware of services that exist for their benefit.

A native of Wisconsin, Pederson won an Emmy award, two Edward R. Murrow awards, several Arkansas Associated Press awards and was named the 2002 Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association Citizen of the Year.

One lucky attendee will win a FREE autographed copy of his book, Somebody’s Knocking.

If you have any questions about the event or would like to know more information about the RPL Author Series. contact Luke Heffley, Special Projects Coordinator for the Ross Pendergraft Library, at (479) 964-0546.

Follow the Ross Pendergraft Library on Instagram or Facebook for news of future events and speakers.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Author Series, Events, Presentations

Hold It!

Posted on August 28, 2024 Written by Angela Black

The Ross Pendergraft Library has enabled a new service designed to help students, faculty, and staff to reserve our items from the comfort of their cozy pants and couch.

As you search our vast database of books, videos, sound recordings, and skeletons, you may notice a new button popping as you click on the titles of our physical items in the library:

Picture our website with a green "Place Hold" in the center.

The “Place Hold” button allows our users to reserve physical copies in our various collections at the Research Help Desk of the Ross Pendergraft Library or the Circulation Desk of the Ozark Campus Library. The books or items will be retrieved from the shelves and set aside for your convenience—all at the push of a button.

Once you find a title in our Find It database, click the hyperlinked title:

This will reveal access options to the right. Click the PLACE HOLD button to initiate the Hold Request.

You will be prompted to login using your ATU username and password. After you sign in, select a copy (if, for example, you need a specific volume of a multi-volume set).

Do you want to pick it up at the Ross Pendergraft Library? If you are a Russellville campus student, that option is selected by default. But if you are reading from the Ozark campus, you can always choose to have it delivered there by selecting Ozark Campus as the Pick-Up location.

Finally, set any specific time-needed dates and add notes if you want. Click SUBMIT when you are ready. You can view your requests (and check-outs, fines, and more) at any time by click “My Account”, located at the top right menu:

The Requests menu will list the item(s) you requested and the status of each request.

Screenshot showing the Requests menu in "My Account". It displays the item on request and status "Not ready for pickup".

After submitting the request, a librarian will retrieve the item from the shelves, and you will receive an email letting you know to pick it up at the designated pick-up location. If you wanted to pick it up from the Russellville campus, that would be the first floor Research Help Desk.

Photograph of the Ross Pendergraft Library's First floor Research Help Desk.

Since the Hold Request for available items may take at least 24 hours to complete, if you are in the library and in a hurry, you can always retrieve and check-out the item yourself. Ask for help if you are unsure where the item is located.

In the past, Hold Requests were usually only available when an item was borrowed by another user or “On Order.” This option is still available, but this fall, we’ve expanded the option for most of our available items.

It is NOT available for our course reserves, short-term loan items, or laptops. Those are still available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For most other items, however, it can be a great way to save time for commuter students, busy faculty and staff, or for making sure those popular items don’t get checked out before you have the chance to come to the library. Hold requests are very similar to our very popular Interlibrary Loan Service that allows you to borrow books, articles, and other materials we don’t own from another library. For more on this service, check out our video or website.

Give the new service a try today by browsing our newest books or search for something specific: http://findit.atu.edu

Hold us closely in your socials through Instagram or Facebook, ask us more about this service through our Ask Us page.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Hold Requests, NEW!

I Know What We Did Last Summer

Posted on August 13, 2024 Written by Angela Black

Welcome back to another semester at Arkansas Tech University! The Library has recently added new changes to our collections, services, and spaces to get you ready to face a new academic year. Here is what we did last summer while you were away:

We Added New Databases!

America’s News

Finally, we now have access to local Arkansas newspapers in full text and—depending on the coverage—with images and photographs. America’s News includes access to the current years of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, as well as other local state newspapers. To learn more about this database, see our blog post from the trial, a video tutorial, or check it out yourself at: https://libguides.atu.edu/az/americas-news

Proquest One Business

This one-stop-shop for all kinds of business resources includes articles, industry reports, market research, company profiles, periodicals (like The Economist, or Arkansas Business), videos, ebooks, case studies and much more. This brings together ABI/INFORM, Hoover’s Company Profiles, and some of the smaller Proquest business resources under one umbrella. Invest some time checking it out: https://libguides.atu.edu/az/proquest-one-business

Pronunciator

Habla español? You could be doing it better with Pronunciator. This replaces Mango Languages as the campus’s language learning platform. It offers step-by-step lesson plans for 163 languages, ESL courses for 146 native languages, and American Sign Language courses. Users have to create an individual profile using ATU email. Phone apps are also supported. Ditch the Duolingo and start learning other languages with Pronunciator: https://libguides.atu.edu/az/pronunciator

We Moved Some Stuff Around!

The Reference Collection (1st Floor)

COMING SOON! We have reconfigured the Reference Collection for a new quiet study space. Located near the Research Help Desk, this collection consists of bibliographies, indexes, encyclopedias, and handy handbooks–elegant weapons from a more civilized age. In early September, new furniture, including cozy study carrels and comfy booths, will arrive to transform this under-utilized space into a more comfortable place to study.

The Current Periodicals Collection (1st Floor)

All of the current issues of our remaining print periodicals are now available at the beginning of the Reference Collection. Those giant shelving racks for current periodicals are gone, and a large conference-style table now fills the space it once occupied. If our current collection on the shelves doesn’t cut it, don’t forget our massive magazine collection online in Libby.

Documentary DVDs

Most of this collection has joined the rest of the DVDs in the lower shelves at the end of television series and televised plays. Documentary films about art and music are now located in the 2^nd Floor Media Lab. More documentary films are available streaming online at Academic Video Online.

We Added New Services!

Check out stuff from the 3^rd Floor Help Desk

Starting this fall, you will now be able to check out batteries for device charging, calculators, dry-erase markers, and headphones from the third floor help desk. You will still need to use your ID to check these materials out, and items are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. But no more trips downstairs for those late-night study accessories.

Docking Stations On Every Floor

Bring your laptop and plug-in on every floor this semester with our docking stations. Enjoy the comfort of your own laptop with dual monitors, a wireless keyboard, a wireless mouse, and instant access to the printers. Each docking station is plug and play so you can quickly resume whatever you were working on at home within close proximity to our printers.

Request a Hold on Library Books

Starting on August 21st, we will begin expanding the ability to create Hold requests on physical items. Do you just need to pick up a few books on the way home? Do you want to be the first to snag that best-seller when it arrives? Use the “Place Hold” button in Find It to select a book to put on reserve for you:

While this service has normally only been available for items which are checked out or on order, you will soon be able to place Hold requests on any item held at our library or at the Ozark campus library. Once you find an item to “Hold” from our online database, Find It, click the “PLACE HOLD” button to complete the request. We will pull the book off the shelf and keep it at the Research Desk on the First Floor when you come in to pick it up at your earliest convenience. You will receive an email when the item is ready to pick up. *Note: Holds are unavailable for course reserves, laptops, or other items on short-term loans.

Stay on top of future news from your library by following us on Instagram or Facebook. Or come say “Hi!” to the table of librarians at Involvement Fair on August 19^th at Tucker Coliseum.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Arkansas, Business, Find it, Foreign Languages, Library Collection, NEW!, spaces

Like Us? Love Us? Are the Vibes Off? Tell Us!

Posted on April 15, 2024 Written by Angela Black

The annual library survey is now live and listening:

https://questionpro.com/t/ADooIZ1sUz

Tell us how the library’s collections, services, and spaces mattered to YOU in 2023. If you’ve ever used our website or stepped foot in any of the library buildings (Ozark Campus Library or the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center), we want to hear what you think about your library. The survey is short and completely anonymous because–as always–we value the privacy of our users.

Have you ever wanted something different in the library? More study spaces? More books? Less noise? An entirely new floor with a café, movie theater, and popcorn machine?

From now until April 19th when the survey closes is your chance to let us know!

We hope you will continue to tell us what we do best and what we can do better on this year’s survey. If you want a more direct approach, send us a text, email, or chat. If you prefer the socials, we can be found on Facebook and Instagram. No matter how you do it, let us know how we can make your library better.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: User survey

Totality Awesome!

Posted on March 27, 2024 Written by Angela Black

Unless you are living under a rock, you know that April 8^th is a special day for Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, Arkansas, and the planet. At exactly 1:50 P.M. (and six seconds), the best show on earth will begin here–on campus and in Russellville—and will last for four minutes and eleven seconds.

Protect your eyeballs for the whole show by picking up special eclipse glasses available at the Ross Pendergraft Library’s Research Help Desk, located on the first floor.

Glasses are available on a first come, first serve basis until they are gone. Every student, faculty, and staff member at ATU can receive one pair of free glasses with a valid ATU ID card. Each pair comes with a special case, protecting your glasses and advertising the time and date of the eclipse.

Provided courtesy of the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, the glasses conform to the ISO 12312-2 standard for direct observation of the sun. Except during the totality phase of a solar eclipse, when the moon completely blocks the sun, it is not safe to look directly at the sun without special eye protection certified for this use. Sunglasses are not enough! See NASA’s guidelines for safely viewing the solar eclipse for more information.

Before the eclipse, be sure to take advantage of the events and activities around campus and the community in the days leading up to April 8^th by reading all about them here: https://www.arkansastechnews.com/your-guide-to-eclipse-events-and-preparation-at-atu/

The Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center will have adjusted hours in the days leading up to, during, and after the eclipse:

Friday, April 5^th – CLOSED At 12:00 P.M. (Noon)
Saturday, April 6^th – CLOSED
Sunday, April 7^th– CLOSED
Monday April 8^th – CLOSED
Tuesday, April 9^th: OPENING At 12:00 P.M. (Noon)

Normal hours resume on Wednesday, April 10th.

We will still offer virtual services by phone, email, text, or chat during normal business hours (8:00 A.M. through 5:00 P.M.) on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook for more events and changes to our hours over the semester, including our final exam hours.

Stay safe and enjoy the Great American Eclipse of 2024!

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Hours, Solar Eclipse

What’s New in the News?

Posted on February 14, 2024 Written by Angela Black

The Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center is test driving a new source of newspapers, both historical and current, with NewsBank. Read all about it here:

http://infoweb.newsbank.com/best/febhp

The collection features a search box that you can use to find the What, When, Where, and Why’s of the world from both today’s news and historical newspapers.

Explore results from national newspapers, college newspapers, state and local papers, plus videos, audio, and other formats.

Explore the “hot topics” section to find focused news on Hispanic Life in America, Black Life in America, the San Francisco Chronicle Collection, and the Cannabis NewsHub Research Edition. You can browse newspaper results by subject or location. Sources also include newspapers from around the world, in multiple languages.

Want to find something closer to home? The database includes access to 93 newspapers in Arkansas, including the Arka Tech, the Courier, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the Arkansas Times, and college and city newspapers from all over the state.

Currently, the only way you can read back issues of the state’s newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, is to use microfilm or browse the bound copies from more recent years. This interface finally makes searching and accessing the state’s newspaper of record online possible within the library.

Give it a try between now and Feb. 29^th when the trial ends. You can let us know what you think by emailing us, texting us, calling us, chatting with us, or whisper-yelling your feedback to us from inside the library.

For more database trials or newsworthy stories, follow us on social medias: Instagram, Facebook, or X.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Arkansas, NEWS, Trial Database

Second Monday Author, Janis F. Kearney, Feb. 12th

Posted on February 9, 2024 Written by Angela Black

Join us as we welcome special guest, Janis F. Kearney, author and presidential diarist of Bill Clinton, who will give a talk at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, in Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center, room 300. A reception sponsored by the ATU Black Faculty and Staff Organization along with the Minority Mentorship Program will be held in at 4:30 prior to the lecture. Admission will be free and everyone is welcome.

Kearney’s latest book, Only on Sundays: Mahalia Jackson’s Long Journey, is a biography about Mahalia Jackson, famed gospel singer and civil rights activist. Mahalia Jackson sold over 22 million records during her career that spanned the 1940s to the 1970s, and is considered one of the most influential gospel vocalists of the twentieth century. Only on Sundays takes a look back at Jackson’s life at the turn of the 20th century in America, and explores one black southern woman’s struggle to attain the American dream.

Author Janis F. Kearney is a native of Gould in southeast Arkansas, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and embarked upon a public service career that included nine years as a project manager and public affairs director in Arkansas state government.

After working alongside civil rights pioneer Daisy L. Gatson Bates as managing editor for the Arkansas State Press newspaper, Kearney purchased the publication and became its publisher upon Bates’ retirement in 1988.

Kearney served in the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1993-2001. She fulfilled the roles of media affairs office staff member and director of communications for the U.S. Small Business Administration before her appointment in 1995 as the first personal diarist to a U.S. president. She continued in that role through June 2001.

Harvard University selected Kearney for a two-year fellowship at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute of African and African American Studies in 2001. There, she began writing a Clinton biography, published as Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton, from Hope to Harlem in 2006. She went on to co-found Writing our World Publishing in 2003 and has written or co-written 17 books.

For more information about the ATU Second Monday Author Series and other events in the library, contact Luke Heffley at (479) 964-0546 or follow us on social media: Instagram, Facebook, or X.

Filed Under: Library Tagged: Second Monday Series

Scale the Paywall at RPL

Posted on January 17, 2024 Written by Angela Black

Tired of hitting a paywall? Climb right over them with the resources at the Ross Pendergraft Library. Scholarly articles, newspapers, and now magazines are all within handy, mobile-friendly reach from our website: library.atu.edu

New this month: RPL just activated the OverDrive Magazine Collection, featuring over 5,000 popular magazines available through the Libby app. Read full-text and full-photo issues of The New Yorker, Rolling Stone Magazine, Newsweek, and the Taylor Swift – Eras Tour Commemorative Issue all from the convenience of your phone.

To get started with the OverDrive Magazine Collection, download the Libby app to your tablet or phone via your app store. Next, find your library using your zip code (72801) or by searching for the library “Arkansas Tech University.”

In addition to the ebooks and audiobooks you can find on Libby, you should now see the “Magazines” option. From there, search for specific keywords or browse by subject, popularity, language, or audience level.

From there, opening the magazine gives you a page-by-page view of the magazine, including articles, photographs, and even advertisements—exactly how it would look if you were flipping through one at the doctor’s office.

However, there are more features, including the ability to zoom in, search within for specific words, change the color scheme, and switch to “article” mode switching the layout to read articles by down scrolling instead of side-to-side swiping.

If you want to be notified when new issues of your favorite magazine are out, you can hit that “subscribe” button and receive notifications when a new issue is out.

Magazines not your thing? We still have ebooks and audiobooks available on the Libby app as well. Additionally, never pay for another scholarly article with help of Find It—our collection of millions of scholarly articles. If we don’t have full-text access, call upon the power of Interlibrary Loan—a service to deliver that needed PDF directly to your email.

Remember: don’t pay a fee—use the library for free! Follow us for more money-saving tips through Instagram, Facebook, and the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Best wishes for a great semester!

Filed Under: Library

Charge Up Your Study Session for Finals

Posted on November 27, 2023 Written by Angela Black

The third floor of the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center just got a boost of power thanks to new charging station batteries.

The round tables on the south side have long been a popular spot for group study sessions. But without a reliable source of power to charge laptops and phones, students couldn’t take advantage of the space for long without resorting to stringing cords to far-away outlets.

Thanks to the Office of Information Systems, each of the two round tables on the third floor are now equipped with charging stations that include a standard power outlet, a Type-C outlet, and a USB outlet. The station does require portable, rechargeable batteries that are now available for all-day, in-library use at the 1^st Floor Circulation Desk.

To use the batteries, simply check one out at the Circulation Desk using your student ID. Next, bring it to any third floor round table and insert the battery into the charging port. Finally, click the power button to ensure that the charging station at the table is ready to charge your devices.

The batteries have enough power to charge typical laptops up to 2 times, average Chromebooks or tablets up to 4 times, and standard smartphones up to 14 times. Additionally, each charging station can also charge a laptop and 2 mobile devices simultaneously. If it should run out of charge, just bring it back to the Circulation Desk to exchange it for a fresh battery

Don’t run out of juice this final exam season! Look for signs on the third floor for this convenient new service. Let us know what else we can do to help fuel your study sessions for finals at askus@atu.libanswers.com.

Filed Under: Library

Voter Registration Forms At The Library

Somebody’s Knocking at RPL Tonight

Hold It!