SDCC & SCS College Library News

The Science Behind the News

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:15:00 +0000

Have you ever wanted a little more information about a news topic related to science, like What causes Earthquakes?

Then you need the Why Files? Supported by the Graduate School of the University of WI-Madison, the website is for the geneal public with nontechincal language. Yeah!

For you education majors, you will discover that clicking the Teaching Activities (pencil) will articles that include classroom activities.

Expelled: No Intellligence Allowed (documentary)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:17:00 +0000

Have you seen Ben Stein's new documentary about the violation of scientist's intellectual and academic freedom when they question the theory of evolution? In his typical dry style, so famously immortalized in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Stein interviews scientists who have lost their jobs for entertaining the idea of intelligent design...Hear also from evolutionists who try to explain how life began.

Here's the 'Official Website.' You can watch the preview.

PluggedInOnline's review: here.

The New York Times sees it from another side: "Resentment Over Darwin Evolves Into a Documentary."

Use Fandango to find in a theater near you.

Are there REALLY alligators in the sewers of NYC?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Have you heard? You are going to need to register your cell phone in the 'do not call' list or telemarketers are going to eat up your 250 mins/mo really fast.

Have you recieved this or a similar email? All in a panic...you scramble.

But wait, have you been the victim of another circulating urban legend? Does eating carrots improve your vision, click here to find out!

When in doubt, go to Snopes.com the urban legends reference pages.

NEW! Free Business Search Engine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:19:00 +0000

One of the first search engines for business professionals (started in 1996), Northern Lights (http://www.northernlights.com/) is about to launch a new (beta) site (http://www.nlsearch.com/) sometime in April. Northern Lights' CEO says that the new search engine "allows small firms and individual researchers to use tools previously available only to Fortune 50 companies."

Read the Information Today article to learn more: Northern Light Readies New Free Business Search Engine by Paula J. Hane.

Information Trapping (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:06:00 +0000

As I discussed in Information Trapping (Part 1), you can keep up with news and blogs by subscribing to pages using RSS and a reader like iGoogle.

Not to be left behind, the EBSCO Research Databases also allow you to subscribe to content through Search Alerts & Journal Alerts. ProQuest has similar alerts (search and publication/journal) through emails.

How does this help me?

If you are doing an extended research project, say for your Senior Project, you will be working on the topic for several months (not weeks, days or hours like typical papers). If you performed a killer search that retrieved really good results, you might want to save that search and run it again later to see if more information was added to the database. Similarly, a journal alert lets you know when new articles for a particular title have been updated in the database.

Setting up a Search Alert.

Once you have performed a search, on the result screen, click on "Create alert for this search" A popup window gives you the syndication feed link which you can then cut and paste into your RSS reader (according to that aggregator's instructions).

Journal Alerts.

For a journal alert (new content added), you need search for the journal title under Publications or click on the title in a citation. In Publications details screen, click on Journal Alert (upper right). You'll need to log in to your EBSCOhost account, then you can select your preferred method of delivery: email or RSS.

Personalize your Library Databases in Blackboard

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Are you confused about which databases have information on your topic? Does the list of 60 databases seem overwhelming? Well, we've finally figured out a solution.

Now you can choose the databases you use the most.

Login to Blackboard & click on the Library Tab. Click on the pencil icon on the upper right corner of the Library Resources box to select the Databases by subject/discipline.

The first four sections are books--ebooks, ereference, ejournals & multidisciplinary databases (these databases have information covering many subjects). The other sections to choose from are...

Art & Humanities,
Business,
Education,
History & Social Sciences,
Psychology,
Religion,
Sciences, OR if you liked the old list--
All Databases.

Click on Submit to save changes.

Information Trapping (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:30:00 +0000

In this age of information overload, how do you keep up? Do you visit a half-dozen blogs and news sites to gather your daily fix? Wouldn't it be nice to have all that stuff delivered to your front door each morning like the slap of the daily paper on your front step? Try RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds allow you to 'subscribe' to your favorite sites through a reader of your choice. If you have a personal computer, an easy way to keep track is using the Feeds filter -- part the Favorites menu in IE (Internet Explorer) -- so all your favorite blogs are gathered into one list. However, if you normally use a public computer for Internet access, you might want to use a reader attached to your personal online accounts like myYahoo, iGoogle or GoogleReader.

You can also subscribe to this blog. Scroll down to the bottom of this page. You will see... Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) <- click here ...and you are on your way OR you can click on the link to the right.

Electronic Journals Service (EJS)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Under FIND ARTICLES on the library webpage you might have seen a link for Electronic Journals Service. EJS helps the library manage the single passwords to online subscriptions that come with having print subscriptions to certain journals.

Currently, there are 57 journals (from SDCC & SCS) that include an online subscription (usually through the publisher’s website).

You will need to log in to EJS using your Student Network Account. When you select a journal & you click your way to the publisher’s website, the username & password will be on a banner on the top of the screen. Use this to log in to the website and access the full text.

Please note: the 57 journals full text availability is not listed in the e-journals list at this time. There are still some technical issues that we have to resolve.

If you have any questions or need assistance please contact the library 619-441-2200 x1227 or library@sdcc.edu

The HEART of the Library -- Reference

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Need a topic for a research paper? Browse through an encyclopedia. Need to know more or refresh your memory about a subject? That’s right, look it up in a reference book. Which is a more efficient use of your time? Scanning a 300 page book or reading a one page entry? You decide.

Efficient. Authoritative. And now---Remotely Accessible.

Introducing 24/7 reference at your finger tips.

One-click Access
Log into Blackboard, select the Library tab, and review your e-Reference options. The library offers twelve (12) e-reference databases: encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, companions, yearbooks and almanacs.

AccessScience -- The McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology online
Over 8,500 online articles, Research Updates from the McGraw-Hill Yearbooks of Science & Technology, 110,000+ definitions from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 15,000 illustrations and graphics, and bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citations, Content contributed by more than 5000 researchers, including 36 Nobel Prize winners, and Biographies of more than 2,000 well-known scientists from the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography®.

Biography Resource Center (Gale)
Combines over 435,000 biographies on more than 340,000 people from over 1,000 volumes of more than 135 respected Gale sources such as Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Newsmakers, Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Contemporary Musicians, Historic World Leaders, Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, Contemporary Black Biography, Religious Leaders of America, International Dictionary of Art and Artists, and Writers Directory, with over 538,000 full-text articles from nearly 300 magazines including American History, The Christian Century, Saturday Night, and U.S. News & World Report.

Encyclopædia Britannica online (academic edition)
Over 73,000 articles, the Encyclopædia Britannica is one of the most complete and accurate information sources in the world, containing both short and book-length articles on every subject. The database also includes: thousands of photographs, illustrations, and sound files, thousands of reviewed Web sites, hundreds of video clips, selected magazine and journal articles, the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus (thousands of entries with definitions, pronunciation guides, word histories, synonyms, and antonyms), comparative charts and tables using in-depth information about the countries of the world, more than 4000 quotations from both historical and contemporary men and women, and a selection of 225 works by 140 authors introduces you to the great writing and ideas of the Western world.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia -- Over 25,000 records, covering an array of topics.

Gale Virtual Reference Library -- A database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.

 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras, 5v, 2005
 Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed., 10v, 2003
 History Behind the Headlines: The Origins of Conflicts Worldwide, 6v, 2003
 St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 5v, 2000
 Countries and Their Cultures, 4v, 2001
 Contemporary American Religion, 2v, 2000
 Encyclopedia of American Religions, 7th ed., 2003
 Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2v, 2004
 Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., 15v, 2005
 Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, 2v, 2003
 New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., 15v, 2003
 Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, 4v, 2005
 Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 3rd ed., 5v, 2004
 Encyclopedia of World Cultures, 10v, 1996
 Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2nd ed., 2001

Literature Resource Center (Gale)
A complete literature reference database containing Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, and also includes selected full-text, excerpted, and commissioned critical material from Gale's respected Literature Criticism and For Students Series: Children's Literature Review, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Drama Criticism, Drama for Students, Literature from 1400 to 1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Literature of Developing Nations for Students, Literature and Its Times, Novels for Students, Poetry Criticism, Poetry for Students, Shakespearean Criticism, Shakespeare for Students, Short Story Criticism, Short Stories for Students, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. In addition, there are current, full-text critical essays on major authors from than 260 prominent literary journals.

Mental Measurements Yearbook
Produced by the Buros Institute at the University of Nebraska, the Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) provides users with a comprehensive guide to over 2,000 contemporary testing instruments.

Oxford English Dictionary online
The accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. The OED covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. It also offers the best in etymological analysis and in listing of variant spellings, and it shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Oxford Reference Online (Premium)
Over 175 fully-indexed, cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Psychology (in PsyBOOKS)
The product of a unique collaboration between the American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press, the Encyclopedia of Psychology is a state-of-the-art synthesis of classic and contemporary knowledge. In more than 1,500 original articles written by distinguished scholars, the Encyclopedia gives shape to a richly diverse science. International in scope and written for a wide range of readers, the Encyclopedia of Psychology is the first place to turn to for authoritative information on every area of the field—and for answers to literally thousands of questions about concepts, methods, theories, findings, major figures, schools of thought, and emerging areas of interest.

Statesman's Yearbook (on campus only)
Fully updated 2008 edition, containing information and analysis on every country in the world, including biographical profiles of current leaders, government histories, extended economic overviews and historical economic statistics, and half-page line maps.

World Almanacs
A fundamental reference source for students and scholars alike, including biographies, encyclopedia entries, facts, statistics. Titles include: Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, The World Almanac of the U.S.A., The World Almanac of U.S. Politics, and The World Almanac for Kids.

Philosophers in 90 minutes flat

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Imagine being able to listen to a concise, expert account of a philosopher's life and ideas in just an hour and a half! Too good to be true, no?

But it is. The library has added several titles the 'in 90 minutes' series to its audio book collection. Come explore the ideas that have influence western civilization. Here are just a few...

Descartes in 90 minutes
Plato in 90 minutes
Aristotle in 90 minutes
Nietzsche in 90 minutes
Kant in 90 minutes
Rousseau in 90 minutes
Spinoza in 90 minutes

Missions Week -- Go Global

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Here's some recently added books on missions.

Ott, Craig and Harold A. Netland, eds. Globalizing theology : belief and practice in an era of world Christianity. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Academic, c2006. 230.01 G562t

The mission of an evangelist : Amsterdam 2000. Minneapolis, MN : World Wide Publications, c2001. 269.2 M678e

Andrew, Brother and Al Janssen. Secret believers : what happens when Muslims believe in Christ. Grand Rapids, MI : Fleming H. Revell, 2007. 266.297 A561s

Bessenecker, Scott A. The new friars : the emerging movement serving the world's poor. Downers Grove, Ill. : IVP Books, c2006. 261.8325 B558n

Bridges, Erich and Jerry Rankin. Lives given, not taken : 21st century Southern Baptist martyrs. Richmond, Va. : International Mission Board, SBC, c2005. 272.9 B851l

Beyond the gates of splendor [videorecording]. Beverly Hills, CA : Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, c2005. DVD 266.9866 H251b

Hesselgrave, David J. Paradigms in conflict : 10 key questions in Christian missions today. Grand Rapids, MI : Kregel Publications, c2005. 266 H587p

Livermore, David A. Serving with eyes wide open : doing short-term missions with cultural intelligence. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Books, c2006. 266.023 L784s

Moore, Grant H. On the wings of a dove : an African missionary odyssey. San Diego, CA : Aventine Press, c2006. 266.96 M822Go

Stone, Bryan P. Evangelism after Christendom : the theology and practice of Christian witness. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Brazos Press, c2007. 269.2 S877e

Williamson, Nancy S. 52 ways to teach missions : easy-to-do activities for ages 4- 12. San Diego, Calif. : Rainbow Publishers, c2006. X 266.007 W731f

Wright, Christopher J.H. The mission of God : unlocking the Bible's grand narrative. Downers Grove, Ill. : IVP Academic, c2006. 266.001 W948m

Books about Martin Luther King

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Today we honor Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. The library has several recent books on the topic.

Going down Jericho Road : the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign. by Michael K Honey. 2007.

Disarming manhood : roots of ethical resistance. by David A J Richards. 2005.

King came preaching : the pulpit power of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Mervyn A. Warren. 2001.

Blessed are the peacemakers : Martin Luther King, Jr., eight white religious leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by S. Jonathan Bass. 2001.

ATLASerials & Full Text

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000

ATLASerials (EBSCOhost) has changed the full-text options – it now supports .pdf!

If you have ever tried to print or email the full text of an article in ATLASerials in the past, you know that it was a detailed process (html located on a separate server).

ATLA just completed the scanning process and now the full text of articles is available on EBSCO servers in the .pdf format. Now you can print, email or save the full text with relative ease.

ASP’s new Visual Search

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Academic Search Premier has changed the Visual Search to display results in by grouping the results by subject and displaying those results in either columns or blocks.

A tutorial for the enhanced search feature is embedded in the search screen.

New History Databases

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000

The library has added two new databases to support the History & Social Science department. They are offered through EBSCOhost so if you are familiar with Academic Search Premier you should be able to search these databases with ease. One cool search feature is the ability to limit by historical period. Both of these databases provide indexing and abstracts. If full-text is available, it is being linked from another EBSCOhost database (most likely Academic Search Premier). Don't forget to check the Article Linker to see if the full text is available in our print collection or another database.

Historical Abstracts
Historical Abstracts is an exceptional resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more - essential for libraries supporting upper-division and graduate research. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955. History and social science researchers have used Historical Abstracts to discover significant and groundbreaking work for more than 50 years.

America: History & Life
America: History and Life is the definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to present, this database is without question the most important bibliographic reference tool for students and scholars of U.S. and Canadian history. The database also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage is balanced by an international perspective on topics and events, including abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages.

A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:42:00 +0000

Maybe not a thousand, but at least a dictionary entry. The Merriam-Webster Online Visual Dictionary lets you explore the 15 major themes to access more than 6,000 images and see words like never before.

So what is the thingy plate called between the door knob and the door?

Browse the House category and find out!

Just How Many English Versions?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:43:00 +0000

How many versions of the Bible are there in English? Did you know that there is a Cotton Patch version of Paul's letters based on American ideas and Southern US culture located in the Vancouver Public Library in Canada?

Tyndale House in Cambridge, UK, gives us a list of over a hundred English versions, including brief description & sampling from Genesis 1: 1, 2; Wisdom (of Solomon) 1: 1; and/or John 1: 1-3.

WordNet -- A Lexical Database for the English Language

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:18:00 +0000

OK. This database has some high cool factors. If you like dictionaries, thesauri, and all things that play with the words of the English language, this free internet database is for you.

I'm not saying it has replaced the Oxford English Dictionary (one of our Research Databases) because no one else tracks the usage of our langauge as well, but imagine a dictionary crossed with a thesaurus and you've got some idea.

WordNet® is being developed under the direction of George A. Miller and the Cognitive Science Laboratory at Princeton.

Wikis just got Scholarly

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:15:00 +0000

Looking remarkably like the much scorned (just try to cite it in a paper) Wikipedia, is a new wiki called Scholarpedia. It is a free peer reviewed encyclopedia written by scholars from all around the world.

That's right. Scholarly. Written by experts in the field AND THEN anonymously peer reviewed!

Currently, Scholarpedia hosts Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience, Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems, Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence and Encyclopedia of Astrophysics. Eventually, these will be published in print form, but they will still be available free on the web & will be updated online.

Reformation Day -- October 31, 1517

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:25:00 +0000

490 years ago today, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses (or complaints) of the Catholic Church on the door of the church at Wittenberg. In comemoration, we *nailed* a copy of that revolutionary document to the glass door of the library this morning.

To learn more about this event, the History Channel has a This Day in History article about it: Martin Luther posts 95 theses.

To read an English translation of the actual document, thanks to Project Wittenberg.

Tomorrow is All Saints Day. We have pulled two copies of Foxe's Book of Martyrs out for students to look at. One copy is updated to the present by the Voice of the Martyrs.

Could you pass the US Citizenship test?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:37:00 +0000

Test your knowledge about US history & government. How many stripes are on the US flag? When was the Constitution written? 1776? 1876?

Take this quiz of sample questions from the US Citizenship test.

Election Season is Just Around the Corner!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:35:00 +0000

It's only 391 days until the next presidential election...! Do you know who you will vote for?

MSN Politics has created this great matrix for evaluating the presidential hopefuls based upon 5 catergories: economy, energy, healthcare, immigration and the Iraq War.

Lectures on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:31:00 +0000

UC Berkeley is now posting some of it's lectures on YouTube.

Physics 10: Physics for Future Presidents is a non-major's introduction to the subject.

SIMS 141 Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business features a lecture by Google founder Sergey Brin.

From biology to chemistry, you can view lectures from the comfort of your computer.

New Books

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:12:00 +0000

If you haven't noticed the new book cart is back & filled our latest editions to the collection.

Here's just a sampling...

Following Jesus in a culture of fear by Scott Bader-Saye. 248.4 B134f

The blogging church : sharing the story of your church through blogs by Brian Bailey with Terry Storch. 254.3 B154b

Twelve days : the story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution by Victor Sebestyen. 943.9052 S443t

50th Anniversary of Sputnik

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:54:00 +0000

On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik into the sky and started the Space Race.

The New York Times has a series of articles related to the anniversary of this event.

The Encyclopedia Britannica has a good video of the event.

The library has several interesting books about the Space Race:

Russia's sputnik generation : Soviet baby boomers talk about their lives. Translated and edited by Donald J. Raleigh. [ebook]

Dark side of the moon : the magnificent madness of the American lunar quest. Gerard J. DeGroot. 629.45 D321d

Apollo : an eyewitness account by astronaut/explorer artist/moonwalker Alan Bean. With Andrew Chaikin ; introduction by John Glenn. 629.454 A644 B367a

Sky walking : an astronaut's memoir. Tom Jones. 629.450092 J79Ts

The complete book of spaceflight : from Apollo 1 to zero gravity. David Darling. [ebook]