Penfield Library Blog

Book Arts

2008-04-02T14:41:00.004-04:00

You may see students in for 'art books', 'books for art', etc.... This is for a project, and they will want to talk to Deale. They will need books from the booksale room to do the following:

The Book Arts Web
Book Arts
Georgia Russell

Farewell

2007-02-01T11:38:00.000-05:00

Hi folks,

We thought you'd like to know that we're stopping publishing the Penfield Library Blog. Our primary blogmaster, Drew, has moved on to even colder climes, and unfortunately there aren't enough librarian-hours in the day for the rest of us to do all the projects we'd ideally like to pursue.

You will find the sorts of announcements formerly posted here in a couple locations -- mainly, the "Library News" section of our homepage, and as announcements on our new flat-screen TV in the main lobby of Penfield. We hope you've enjoyed reading the blog as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

-- Brian and the Penfield Library bloggers

Disaster Research -- Source of the Week

2006-11-10T15:03:00.000-05:00

Natural disasters, that is...

For all those students out there researching this topic right now, we've got the perfect reference book for you! Look in the reference room at call number Ref GB5014 .N373 2001 for the 3 volume set called Natural Disasters. (First aisle on the left, gray books on the right about halfway down the row.) I'll be really surprised if you can't find a background article and list of sources on your topic here!

Then make a stop at the reference desk to learn about the article databases and other resources that are available on these topics -- just Ask A Librarian!

Mrs. Santa comes early to Penfield…

2006-11-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

When I came in yesterday, I noticed 4 big boxes outside my office door. It seems Mrs. Santa got an early start on her shopping and thought of our students!

Inside the boxes were these wonderful purple Puff Scroll Rocking Chairs with ottomans! I couldn’t believe they matched our Browsing décor so well!

Our holiday helpers, Larry and Jack, unpacked them, put them together and voila!
out in Browsing they went. It only took 10 minutes before students lounged leisurely in our purple rockers, rocking their cares away.

Come visit us and tell us what you think!

--Harobed

Need Grad School Info?

2006-11-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

In celebration of Graduate School Week we've put our graduate school resources on display! Check the table behind the Information Desk for books that will help you choose the right school for your interests, or prepare for your entrance exams. There are also copies of standard exam prep books (including GRE, GMAT, LSAT) available for checkout, and shelved in a special section of our browsing collection. See the catalog for call numbers. Need help? Ask a Librarian!

Halloween Horde

2006-10-31T12:19:00.000-05:00

Here at Penfield we're trying to be helpful, fast, and friendly. To help our students get their work done, find what they need, and teach them along the way. Today however, we're also celebrating the macabre, the uncanny, and the weird. Take a look!

Penfield Library 9th Annual Food For Fines

2006-10-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

Starting October 30th and running through November 22nd, Penfield Library will be holding its Food For Fines project. During this project, library patrons will be able to donate food to the Human Concerns food pantry. In thanks for this support for the Oswego community, library staff will forgive one dollar of fines for each food item donated. (4 packages of Ramen noodles =$1) Please, only canned or dry food please, no glass.

We’re asking students to pass the word to their friends, so please spread the word. For more information, please contact the Circulation Desk at 312-2560. Thank you!

Parents' Weekend Book Sale

2006-10-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for something fun to do with your family this weekend, bring them over to Penfield for the Parents' Weekend Book Sale! The sale will run from 11:30-2:30 on Saturday and is a great way to pick up some cheap books and support the library (all proceeds go to purchasing new books for the collection.) This is just a smaller sale for Family and Friends Weekend; our three-day annual major book sale is in the spring.

(Note: there was an incorrect announcement in the Post-Standard with the wrong hours for the book sale. The correct hours are 11:30-2:30.)

Microfilm made easy

2006-10-05T09:02:00.000-04:00

You probably know the feeling. You've just found the perfect article you need for your research paper. You click the "Find Text" button in the database to see if we subscribe to any databases with the article in it. And no, it's not online, but there is a copy you can get to right away, in the library... on microfilm.

In the past, most people would go back to searching rather than experience the horrors of learning to use the microfilm reader. (I've heard tales of assignments that specifically require students to use microfilm, which seems to me somewhat akin to academic hazing.) Okay, so it's not really that hard to figure out, but for the twenty-first century student in a rush, it's pretty darned inconvenient.

Well, this is just a reminder that here at Penfield, we offer a service to scan your article for you off the microfilm and send it to you via e-mail within 24 hours (occasionally longer over holidays or weekends). Just use our microform scanning request form (linked from the Contact Us/Request Forms section of the library web site. It's quick, it's painless, and it's a great way to get at some of the most unique stuff the library has to offer. There are some caveats (articles no more than 50 pages; newspaper articles will be scanned but you may get better results from viewing them directly on the reader; etc.) that you can read at the top of the request form.

If you need quicker turnaround than 24 hours, you are welcome to use the library's film reader/scanner yourself. It's located right next to the Periodicals/Media Desk on the second floor, and staff there are trained to help you with the reader and the scanning software.

Getting into graduate school?

2006-10-04T11:17:00.000-04:00

Thinking about going to graduate school?

The SUNY Oswego radio talk show MINDFUL MOMENTS on 88.9 FM WNYO, hosted by Dr. Barbara Streets Mondays 6-7 will have the following program on Nov. 13, 6-7: "Getting into Graduate School" with Dr. David King, Dean of Graduate Studies and Research.

And afterwards, don't forget to ask a librarian about some of our college resources . We have digital and print resources to help you better explore your graduate school programs, scholarships, universities, and job outlook.

We're not just here for your assignments, we're here to help you.

(some of) The Library Book Club

2006-09-28T11:43:00.000-04:00

Here at Penfield, we {gasp!} like to read.

So, last year, we started a book club. There is a core group who reads most or all of the selections. Some books we have enjoyed, others... not so much.

We have selected twelve books thusfar, which are:

- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

- The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

- In the House of My Fear: A Memoir by Joel Agee

- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling and

- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Lucia Graves (Translator)

- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

- The Eyre Affair: A Novel by Jasper Fforde

- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana By Umberto Eco

- My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult

- The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea

- Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

- The Peabody Sisters by Megan Marshall

Umm.... Oops?

Busy!

2006-09-27T20:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, you folks are busy!

I'm sitting on the reference desk right now, a Wednesday night, and have been answering telephone calls, face to face questions, chat questions, etc. We've had a history class make a surprise appearance as their professor stopped in to help his students find some research. We've had pledges marching up and down the stairs in shifts. And tonight I've learned about the diaspora, about lpfm, and about citing government documents in the APA format. We've also had a few people asking who were our buildings? You've kept me on my toes, thanks!

Let me return the favor with some tricks and tips.

Did you know that if you're looking to use a computer for research in the library, that we've moved a few into the Reference Room? They're a bit limited compared to our lobby computers, but for doing research they should work swimmingly.

How about if you're looking to make a copy of an article? You can check out a portable scanner from the circulation desk instead of using the photocopier, and make a PDF of the document. And yes, when checking out a scanner, it comes with instructions.

And while you're at the circulation desk checking out a laptop, ask about our lapdesks as well.. might making using the beanbag chairs a little more comfortable too.

Well, back to it here. Hope your first weeks are going well!

Finding texts in the public domain, pt. 2

2006-09-13T08:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I posted about how to find public domain short stories using the library catalog. As you'll certainly recall, to be in the public domain, a work must have been published prior to 1923 (i.e., books published in 1922 are in the public domain; books published in 1923 are not.)

As you may have suspected, a very good place to look in this case is the internet. Since the books we're looking for are in the public domain, they can be legally (!) distributed over the internet, and there are plenty of people who are willing to do so for free.

One good source for public domain texts is WikiSource, a collection of free texts from the same non-profit responsible for Wikipedia. If you look on the right side of the WikiSource front page, there's a link to Works by type. If you follow this link, voila! there is a link to Short Stories. You might want to proceed on to Classic short stories, where you'll find 35 (as of today) short stories, all in the public domain, ready for you to use.

Project Gutenberg is another such collection. If you want to find short stories in Project Gutenberg, all you have to do is click on "Advanced Search", and put "short stories" in the Subject field. As of today, this retrieves 117 books, mostly collections of short stories, all in the public domain.

A third source that's been getting a lot of press recently is Google Book Search. What Google has done is partner with several publishers and libraries to digitize massive numbers of books and make them searchable. Now, Google has to respect copyright, so for books not in the public domain, all you'll be able to read is a few pages or even less, depending on the wishes of the copyright holder. But for public domain books, you can read and download the full text online. The difference between Google and the previous two is that Google is using scanned images instead of transcribing them, so what you get is a PDF image of the book. This is nice in that you get illustrations and some of the quirky fun stuff that you get from reading a 100-year-old book. Of course, it's also a huge file, so don't try printing the whole thing out or the people behind you in the print queue may get a little grumpy.

To find public domain books in Google Book Search, do an advanced book search. Type "short stories" in the "Find books with the exact phrase" box, select the "full view books" radio button, limit your search by date (1800 to 1922 would be a good range to try), and search. (The shortcut, for those of you who are into such things, is to type: "short stories" date:1800-1922 into the basic search box.)The issue here, as is often the case with Google, is that you get so many results (15000 in this case) that it's hard to know where to start. (Bear in mind also that this will include books about short stories (criticism, analysis, etc.) as well, so you'll have some more sorting through to do.

As you can see, there are a number of ways to find public domain books and short stories, and I've really only scratched the surface. Happy hunting!

Finding texts in the public domain

2006-09-12T11:37:00.000-04:00

I got an interesting question yesterday at the reference desk from a couple of people who had an assignment that required them to find a short story in the public domain. This is a pretty interesting problem (at least to me), and there are a couple different ways to go about it.

The first thing to know is that in the United States, any book published 1922 or before is in the public domain. (There are other categories of books in the public domain, but that one's the easiest to determine.) Unfortunately, this isn't totally straightforward to do in the library catalog, but it can be done:

Open the library catalog.

Do a search for "short stories". Note that this gives you all the records with these words in them, not just the pre-1923 ones we want.

Click the "Filter" button (on the light blue toolbar). You want to filter by "Years of publication", so click that link.

It doesn't particularly matter what year you pick for the first box (I tried 1800), but in the second box you should put 1922. Once you've filled in both boxes, click "Go".

You should get a list of results, all of which are in the public domain, most of which will contain short stories. Some, like The short story, its principles and structure, are actually nonfiction works about short stories, which isn't what you're looking for. But you should find several here that fit your purposes.

Write down some call numbers for ones that look interesting, and head to the third floor of the library to check them out! Make sure you check the "Is it here?" link first so you'll know if the book you want is checked out.

Edited to add: Of course, it doesn't really matter for these purposes whether the book itself was published prior to 1923, as long as the short story itself was originally published prior to 1923. So if you don't find anything you like that way, just do a keyword search for "short stories" (with quotes). In each full record, you will often get the author's birth and death dates -- e.g., the record for Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales tells you Anderson lived from 1805-1875, so all his works will be in the public domain. For authors who died after 1922, check an encyclopedia to find out which specific stories were written early enough to be in the public domain.

There's another way to answer this problem, though, and it involves finding the short stories online. I'll address that in a follow-up post later.

Got questions? "Ask A Librarian"!

2006-09-11T15:59:00.000-04:00

Need help writing that citation? Need to find a peer reviewed journal article? Confused about how to get 24/7 access to library resources? Then you need to Ask A Librarian!! Contact us using any of our services:

walk-up service at the library information desk
phone X4267
e-mail refdesk@oswego.edu
use our greatly expanded IM (chat) service. When classes are in session, hours are now Mon-Thurs 10-4 and 7pm-10:45; Fri 10-3; Sun 1-4:45 For details and exceptions see the Ask A Librarian page.
for in-depth research help, make an Xtreme Research appointment

Librarians are here to help you whenever the library is open, so what are you waiting for?

Office space available

2006-09-11T12:55:00.000-04:00

Did you take my stapler?

Are you keeping it in your own study carrel in the library? Let's see if Abbey has it...

Hmm, nope. But she sure looks comfortable. I bet she checked it out for the semester, and is using it as a quiet place to study away from the dorms. And she doesn't have to lug her stuff around so much, either. I just hope she remembered to check out the books she has in there, so we know where they are.

Did you know that you too can check out a study carrel? We've plenty of them on the second and third floors. Be a big shot and have your own office. Courtesy of Penfield Library.

Now where's that stapler..?

posted for Deborah Curry

Rediscover the library!

2006-09-08T09:31:00.000-04:00

If you've stopped by the library yet this semester, you've probably noticed a lot of changes. We've been hard at work improving the library and giving you new spaces to read, study, and hang out.

One new area that we're excited about is our new periodical browsing area. You can find it on the second floor, in the corner to the left as you're facing the periodicals/media desk. We're using this area to highlight some of our more popular and interesting selections. There's comfortable seating (try one of the new beanbag chairs!), wired tables where you can hook up your laptop, window views, and much more.

So take some time this weekend, stop by, and rediscover the library. And let us know what you think!

Campus Wireless Coverage

2006-08-31T10:38:00.000-04:00

Have you checked out how much of our campus is wireless, lately?

Wow. I remember when Penfield Library was the only building with a wireless network. Thank you, CTS, you folks have been busy.

Looks like before the snow blows in, this erstwhile cloistered librarian will be heading out to other buildings for office hours. If you see us with our Ask a Librarian badges outside Penfield Library, hey, we're still on the job. Feel free to ask us for help with whatever research help you need.

And now, I can cross ~~Use 'Erstwhile' in a blog post today~~ from my to do list. (We all need goals)

Enjoy your day!

Welcome back

2006-08-28T09:37:00.000-04:00

Ah, the first day back at school. Soon, you'll be eyeball deep in chemistry, psychology, human/computer interaction, differential equations, and postcolonial literary theory.

But before you start making your brain swell, maybe you should drop in on Penfield Library for some leisure materials. That's right, we said it, and we'll say it again: leisure materials. Things like our popular 'browsing' collection of fiction and New York Times bestsellers. Or the new Student Association DVD collection. Or check out the newspaper and magazine collection either on the 2nd floor of the library or in our cafe'.

And hey, if you pop over, let us know what you think about the beanbags..

Kathleen models one of our beanbag chairs down in the Browsing section on the first floor.

.. you'll find them scattered around the building wherever the last person used them. There's a few on every floor. We hope that you'll enjoy them.

Well, I'm headed over to the cafe to get some chai. From all of us here at Penfield Library: Welcome back, and we'll see you soon.

Ch-ch-changes

2006-08-04T11:11:00.000-04:00

What happens over the summer? Changes. Improvements. Repairs. And construction.

First, we'd like to give everyone the head's up that campus e-mail will be down, starting at noon today, and lasting through the weekend. Campus IT is making some improvements to our campus e-mail service, and need to take some things offline to get it done. If you need to get in touch with the library, please call or IM us during our business hours.

Also, as you step back into the library after your summer break, you might try to head for the Information Desk. But wait! Where'd it go?

As you walk into the building, and walk toward our stairs, take a look to your right. We've moved the desk forward so people needing help won't have to hunt for the Information Desk. We think it's a good change, what do you think?

Other big changes? We've just hired the first of two new librarians to our team. We'd like to welcome Emily Hart, our new Reference and Instruction Librarian.

You'll meet her at the Reference/Information Desk, and in Library Instruction classes. Please stop by and say hello!

Hope you all are having an easy summer, and we hope you enjoy the new and improved Penfield Library when you get back.

Saturday, August 5th, Library Closed

2006-07-31T15:38:00.000-04:00

Hey folks, as you may have noticed on our Library Homepage, we're going to be closed this Saturday, August 5th. Due to some campus construction, we're expecting to lose our phone and network access.

If you're planning on getting some work done in Penfield, please schedule a visit either before or after this weekend. While the network woes will make the computers in the 24 Hour Room unavailable, the room will still be open and available for studying (and getting out of the heat).

Questions or comments? Drop us a line or leave a comment here. Thanks for your patience!

The Complete New Yorker

2006-06-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

From its famous covers to its iconic cartoons, The Complete New Yorker (Special Reserve AP2. N67632 2005) has it all. Whether you want to browse New Yorker covers, search for a favorite poet or writer, or follow the development of an issue or event, The Complete New Yorker is a wonderful tool for any casual reader or serious researcher.

Although the New Yorker chronicles all things New York City, it also provides insightful commentary on national and international issues as well as publishing fiction, poetry, and criticism from major authors and up-and-coming writers. The Complete New Yorker may be searched by keyword, author, title, year, issue, or department (i.e. the "puzzle department").

See, for example, what SUNY Oswego's Ken Auletta has written for the New Yorker over the years. Its 8 DVDs, compatible with both Macs and Pcs, offer the ease and quality of print in addition to the searchability of digitization. Users have the ability to print high-quality images of cartoons, photographs, advertisements, covers, or text from the collection. Some of the useful functions of the collection are "Reading Lists," which works much like iTunes' Playlist function as well as "My Notes," which allows users to save personal notes corresponding to articles or other pages in the magazine.

Whether you're interested in looking at the cartoons or following the visual representations in popular media from 1925 to present, The Complete New Yorker provides you access to the resources you need to research or enjoy your interests to the fullest.

--S. Pritting

Your moment of Zen

2006-05-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

I came in this morning, needing caffeine, only to discover..

(If someone can make an encouraging response out of my magnetic poetry, please do so. Something like the "Bad Day" video that's constantly playing on VH-1, I'd imagine..)

After getting some chai from the cafe, I went to check my mail and stumbled across..

(Look at me, not making any easy jokes)

.. I see I'm going to have to charge up the digital camera and clear the memory. It's going to be one of those days, isn't it? ;)

Hang in there, folks. If it was easy, it wouldn't be worth anything. Please remember that it's not too late to ask your faculty, your TA's, or your librarians for any last minute help. We're still on the clock, and our job is to help you get what you need. Best of luck!

Free Coffee for Finals, Day two

2006-05-16T20:06:00.000-04:00

If you're in the library right now, have you gotten your free goodies yet? These folks have...

At 7pm, we made the announcement..

..and the line quickly formed.

Some of the goodies offered..

..and some of the work done.

If you haven't had a chance to get some study-fuel, you have till 10pm tonight. If it helped, if it was a welcome gesture, if you enjoyed it, let someone know.

Good luck with the final push, all!

Free coffee at the Lake Effect Cafe

2006-05-16T10:30:00.000-04:00

BEFORE free coffee:

AFTER free coffee:

We hear that those of you who found your way to the free coffee at the Lake Effect Cafe in the library last night had a pretty good time. Come back tonight (the last night) between 7:00 and 10:00 for more! If you missed it, Penfield Library, Auxiliary Services, and the Provost's office have joined forces to offer you free coffee, tea, fruit punch, cookies, and rice krispie treats to help you survive finals week.

Enjoy!