Talking in the Library

Summer R & R

Summer is almost here.  Lazy days, hot days where you don't want to do much.  So how about finding a good book to read?  Or if you're driving home or driving on vacation, how about an audio book (finding and keeping a good radio station can be the pits)?

You can find lots to read or hear in the Leisure Reading Collection on the 2nd floor of Hale Library.  Just head for the book shelves diagonally to your right as you enter.

And here are some of the recent arrivals for your entertainment and relaxation.

Title: Don't put me in, coach : my incredible NCAA journey from the end of the bench to the end of the bench / Mark Titus.
Author: Titus, Mark, 1987-
Callno: GV884.T57 A3 2012

Title: Rights at risk : the limits of liberty in modern America / David K. Shipler.
Author: Shipler, David K., 1942-
Callno: KF4749 .S525 2012

Title: Million dollar baby [sound recording] : a selection from Abandoned / Lisa Jackson.
Author: Jackson, Lisa.
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3560.A223 M55 2011

Title: Extremely loud & incredibly close / Jonathan Safran Foer.
Author: Foer, Jonathan Safran, 1977-
Callno: PS3606.O38 E97 2011

Title: Island of vice : Theodore Roosevelt's doomed quest to clean up sin-loving New York / Richard Zacks.
Author: Zacks, Richard.
Callno: HV6795.N5 Z33 2012

Title: Another piece of my heart / Jane Green.
Author: Green, Jane, 1968-
Callno: PR6057.R3443 A56 2012

Title: Apocalypse / Troy Denning.
Author: Denning, Troy.
Callno: PS3554.E5345 A66 2012

Title: Imagine : how creativity works / Jonah Lehrer.
Author: Lehrer, Jonah.
Callno: BF408 .L455 2012

Title: Body language of dating [sound recording] / Tonya Reiman.
Author: Reiman, Tonya.
Callno: COMPACT DISC BF637.N66 R447 2012

Title: Devil in the grove : Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the dawn of a new America / Gilbert King.
Author: King, Gilbert.
Callno: HV9956.G76 K56 2012Title: Death comes to Pemberley [sound recording] / P.D. James.
Author: James, P. D.
Callno: COMPACT DISC PR6060.A467 D33 2011b

Title: Letter from a stranger / Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Author: Bradford, Barbara Taylor, 1933-
Callno: PS3552.R2147 L48 2012b

Title: Letter from a stranger [sound recording] / Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Author: Bradford, Barbara Taylor, 1933-
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3552.R2147 L48 2012c

Title: Big cat nap : the 20th anniversary Mrs. Murphy mystery / Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown ; illustrated by Michael Gellatly.
Author: Brown, Rita Mae.
Callno: PS3552.R698 B54 2012

Title: Unseen / Heather Graham.
Author: Graham, Heather.
Callno: PS3557.R198 U57 2012

Title: Death comes silently / Carolyn Hart.
Author: Hart, Carolyn G.
Callno: PS3558.A676 D4454 2012

Title: Echoes of betrayal [sound recording] / Elizabeth Moon.
Author: Moon, Elizabeth.
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3563.O557 E34 2012b

Title: Before I go to sleep : a novel / S.J. Watson.
Author: Watson, S. J. (Steven J.)
Callno: PR6123.A884 B44 2011

Title: Lost years / Mary Higgins Clark.
Author: Clark, Mary Higgins.
Callno: PS3553.L287 L485 2012

Title: Fiddler / Beverly Lewis.
Author: Lewis, Beverly, 1949-
Callno: PS3562.E9383 F53 2012

Title: Thunder and rain / Charles Martin.
Author: Martin, Charles, 1969-
Callno: PS3613.A7778 T48 2012

Title: Daughter of smoke & bone / Laini Taylor.
Author: Taylor, Laini.
Callno: PZ7.T214826 Dau 2011

Title: Rather outspoken : my life in the news / Dan Rather with Digby Diehl.
Author: Rather, Dan.
Callno: PN4874.R28 A3 2012

Title: Rather outspoken [sound recording] : my life in the news / Dan Rather [with Digby Diehl].
Author: Rather, Dan.
Callno: COMPACT DISC PN4874.R28 A3 2012c

Title: Born of silence / Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Author: Kenyon, Sherrilyn, 1965-
Callno: PS3563.A311145 B68 2012

Title: Every last secret : a mystery / Linda Rodriguez.
Author: Rodriguez, Linda.
Callno: PS3618.O3584 E94 2012

Title: Stonecutter / Camilla Läckberg ; translated by Steven T. Murray.
Author: Läckberg, Camilla, 1974-
Callno: PT9877.22.A34 S7313 2012 

Title: Subliminal : how your unconscious mind rules your behavior / Leonard Mlodinow.
Author: Mlodinow, Leonard, 1954-
Callno: BF315 .M56 2012

Title: 11th hour / James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.
Author: Patterson, James, 1947-
Callno: PS3566.A822 A6185 2012

Title: Guilt by degrees / Marcia Clark.
Author: Clark, Marcia.
Callno: PS3603.L3653 G85 2012

Title: Emotional chaos to clarity [sound recording] / Phillip Moffitt.
Author: Moffitt, Phillip.
Callno: COMPACT DISC BF531 .M64 2012b

Title: Guest of honor : Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House dinner that shocked a nation / Deborah Davis.
Author: Davis, Deborah, 1957-
Callno: E757 .D247 2012

Title: Just listen [sound recording] / Mark Goulston.
Author: Goulston, Mark.
Callno: COMPACT DISC HF5718 .G68 2012

Title: Who is that man? ; in search of the real Bob Dylan / David Dalton.
Author: Dalton, David.
Callno: ML420.D98 D35 2012

Title: Home / Toni Morrison.
Author: Morrison, Toni.
Callno: PS3563.O8749 H66 2012

Title: Home [sound recording] / Toni Morrison.
Author: Morrison, Toni.
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3563.O8749 H66 2012c

Title: Courting darkness [sound recording] / Yasmine Galenorn.
Author: Galenorn, Yasmine, 1961-
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3607.A413 C68 2011b

Study Break: American History

Are you about up to your limit in finals studying? There's more than one way to get info into your brain. Let's try a little video. Maybe you're taking American Constitutional History or US History to/since 1877. (Maybe you can tell me what happened in 1877 that makes it such a breaking point?) In any case, here are a few videos to help you learn some basic American history.

The Presidents, explained in song by Jonathan Coulton.  Now needs a new final verse, but still great:

One I've already linked on this blog, but still can't get over. I blame the 80s.

 

Hope a little history in song gets you through a final or two.

Short Cuts: The Hale Library Finals Week Study Guide

If you're worried about finals, be comforted by this --- you've made it this far! Compared to how far you've come this semester, one week left is next to nothing! And K-State Libraries is here to help you make it the rest of the way!

To that end, we're once again expanding our hours to better accommodate those of you who favor studying here at 2am (or any time of night for that matter). Beginning this Friday, the Hale Library will remain open 24 hours a day until the following Friday at 6pm, marking the end of finals and the semester.

The 3rd floor Quiet Zone will spread to the 1st and 4th floors, placing all but 2nd floor in the cone of silence. 2nd floor will remain group study --- though we ask your enthusiasm for prokaryotes and/or Proust to not extend too far from your table thus interrupting your neighbors debating about the Tokugawa Shogunate. Whether your group needs to finish a project or you require absolute silence for some intense studying, be sure to claim your spots early --- finals week has gotta be Hale's most popular time of the year!

Speaking of groups, with all the increased activity (and boy does it increase --- it's like WalMart on Black Friday around here!) here's another good reason to bring along a wingman (is there a gender-neutral term for that? Wingperson?) --- they can watch your stuff during potty breaks.

If Hale's a bit too far, don't forget our other libraries --- Fiedler, Math/Physics, VetMed, and Weigel are all there to serve you, no matter what you're studying at present. But be sure to check out the finals week hours for each library before you make the trek.

Need a little boost at the outset? Caffeine Fix is back! We'll be treating all you night owls to coffee, tea, and snacks Sunday May 6, Monday May 7, and Tuesday May 8 from 10pm to midnight. Of course, outside these hours you can always visit the vending machines by the 1st floor entrance or, even better, stop by Einstein Bros. for a recharge.

Finally, should you need a break (and you will need a break) and are having difficulty selecting from the surfeit of choice amusements the internet offers, this author would like to recommend the following.

Dan Ireton

 

Short Cuts: For the soon-to-be K-State graduate

For the soon-to-be K-State graduates out there, revel in the reality that little more than two weeks stand between you and sweet, sweet freedom from the world of academia (unless, of course, your future includes graduate school!).

Excited? Nervous? Prepared? Anxious? A little sad?

Whatever you may be feeling, remember, as you continue on to become doctors and artists and lawyers and teachers, K-State Libraries will still be here with resources and services for alumni. We even have an alumni services page on our website. Begin at the K-State Libraries home page, choose "more" from the "Information for" box, and then select the Alumni link on the right.

The alumni page features free and State of Kansas databases for your use, as well as information on how to check out books after you graduate with a current Alumni Association membership card.

Stay connected with us and K-State after you graduate. Join the K-State Alumni Association or become a Friend of the K-State Libraries. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter to keep in touch.

retrieved from the K-State Libraries flickr

I’m sure you’re not going to run back to the Libraries for more research two days or even two months after you graduate. But keep us in mind for those tricky questions or obscure topics when you can’t help but think, I wish I had a librarian by my side! K-State Libraries will always welcome you!

Congratulations to those of you graduating and good luck with your future endeavors!

Short Cuts: Tips to search Google like a scholar

It's not often that you see Google and scholar in the same sentence. You're probably all too familiar with warnings from professors and librarians alike, "Don't use Google. Use the Library databases!"

It's not that we hate Google. Believe me, sometimes we all eat, sleep, and breathe Google. It's not even that scholarly research can't be found on Google. The reason we tend to warn you away is that there's so much other stuff out there --- from eHow and Wikipedia to personal and corporate sites --- that it gets a little crowded. As a result, it can be exceedingly difficult to track down those scholarly sources amid the pages and pages of junk. But it can be done!

While K-State Libraries has the perfect tools for conducting research and locating scholarly sources, we recognize that everyone uses Google. There's no denying it. But let's be smart about it and use Google like a scholar. Try these tips and tricks the next time you take Google for a spin.

Google logo (retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons by Marcin Wichary)

You can tell a lot about a website from its domain name. For example, .edu is education, .gov is government, .org is a non-commercial site, .com is commercial, and so on. Generally .edu and .gov websites will contain the most credible information, though sometimes .org may be useful. Here's a simple way to limit your search to one type of domain name using the "site:" search.

TRY IT

• Find statistics about childhood obesity from a U.S. government agency
• Search for site:.gov U.S. childhood obesity statistics
• Results should include websites from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, like this one titled Childhood Obesity Facts

TRY IT

• Find the biography of Ernest Hemingway (NOT from Wikipedia)
• Search for site:.edu "Ernest Hemingway" biography
• Results should include the websites of university libraries and colleges with biographies written by faculty and staff. Check out the Ernest Hemingway collection from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Sometimes it's also helpful to limit your results to documents (doc), reports (pdf), or presentations (ppt) from a university or government site. You can add the "filetype:" search to the "site:" search above for more specific results.

TRY IT

• Find a PDF report on climate change by a government agency
• Search for site:.gov "climate change" filetype:pdf
• Results should include PDF documents/reports/papers from government agencies like the National Weather Service or the Environmental Protection Agency

TRY IT

• Find a PowerPoint presentation on the Revolutionary War so you can brush up on your history before an exam
• Search for site:.edu "revolutionary war" filetype:ppt
• Results should include PowerPoint presentations from university and college websites, mostly likely created by professors or students, such as this PowerPoint on Revolutionary War medicine by a professor at the University of Pittsburgh

These are only a few of the tricks that can help you tame the Google beast. For more tips and tricks, click on the image below to view this Google infographic.

Retrieved from Hackcollege.com

Overwhelmed with all the possibilities for finding information? Contact Ask-A-Librarian for more strategies to search Google like a scholar. Or, give Google a rest and visit our databases or new search tool for immediate access to scholarly research.

So...I have this government website for one of my sources. Should I use it?

Absolutely!  In fact, librarians are relieved when students find government websites for projects and research.  Why?  Government websites, unlike a lot of what you might find on the web, are credible and trustworthy.  How can you tell if a website is credible?  Lots of ways!  Let’s take a look at a few things you should consider:

 

1) Who wrote or compiled the information?

Is there an author listed or can you easily identify the organization that published the information?  Or…is it anonymous?  If you can’t find the author or the organization that published the material, it might be time to move on to another source.

 

2) Can you find information about the author(s) or the organization?

Are there credentials listed after the author’s name?  Or can you easily find additional information about the agency or organization?   Look for indications of authority such as a PhD, MD, MS, or other letters indicating that the author has evidence of completing a higher education or graduate degree.  Also, look for affiliations with a university or government organization. 

3) Can you independently verify the information presented?

Can you trace the information presented back to its original source?  Where is the author or organization getting the information?  If you can’t verify the information—you got it—it might be time to move on to another source. 

4) Do they cite their sources?

This goes hand-in-hand with independently verifying the information presented.  Does the source cite a particular study, but doesn’t give any other information about the study? Is there a reference list at the bottom or are references cited throughout the website?  

5) How does it compare to other information you find?

Does the source talk about the topic in a new way that you’ve never encountered?  Is it so out there that you can’t find other sources that talk about it in the same manner?  Remember to think critically and take care when selecting your sources.

These steps give the researcher—you—even more reasons for finding and using government websites in your research.  Want to get started using government information on the web?  Click here to get started.  Also, check out the links below for more information about evaluating websites and other information you find on the web.

 

http://library.duke.edu/services/instruction/libraryguide/evalwebpages.html

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

 

And remember, don't hesitate to Ask-A-Librarian if you have questions!

 

Sources:

Eckman, A.S. (2011, June 28).  Type 2 diabetes – risk factors.  Retrieved from      

                http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002072.htm 

 

--Ashley Stark

Short Cuts: K-State Libraries resources to help you and K-State go GREEN

I think K-State would look lovely in a shade of green, don't you? Yep, I think a sustainable, eco-friendly, Earth Day kind of green would suit K-State perfectly!

You've probably heard a lot about K-State's sustainability efforts recently. There's a lot of green to be proud of! This week, K-State Today announced Kansas State University's recognition as one of the country's greenest colleges for the third year in a row in the The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2120 Edition. Recyclemania made front-page news in The Kansas State Collegian, reporting that K-State made the top 30% of the 605 schools competing with a 23.8% recycling rate. And Earth Day is just around the corner with the Campus Earth Day Festival on Friday, April 20 from 10am - 2pm at Bosco Plaza. Hosted by Students for Environmental Action, this festival will feature a t-shirt swap, plant sale, food, music, and more!

K-State Libraries is looking a little green, too (I think we've caught the sustainability bug!). Last week, K-State Today featured some of our sustainability resources. From sustainable development and green building design to ecoliteracy and renewable energy, we've got your green needs covered with resources online and in print.

Use our new Sustainability Subject Guide to help you locate the best sustainability resources for research in your topic area. Access the guide by clicking on the Earth Day 2012 image on the K-State Libraries home page (this week only) or by choosing the Use a class & research guide link and then typing "sustainability" into the search box.

Whether you're aiming to save the world with renewable energy research or just curious about recycling and biking efforts on college campuses, check out the Sustainability Subject Guide to find articles, books, videos, upcoming events, and the top sustainability organizations at K-State and in Kansas.

Instead of just K-State purple, give K-State purple AND green a try!

Check out this video for more information on Earth Day 2012.

Short Cuts: K-State's history is coming to a browser near you.

K-State Libraries have long been home to a vast collection of photographs, letters, yearbooks, newspaper articles, diaries, course catalogs, books, and other documents that chronicle the history of Kansas State University.

This rich collection has been and still is available to researchers and visitors between the hours of 8am and 5pm Monday - Friday in the Richard L.D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections on Hale Library's 5th floor. Those who make the trek are rewarded by being able to consult in-person with knowledgeable staff and view the materials in the comfort of an elegant reading room. For anyone who wishes to do extensive research on Kansas State University history, this will remain the single best option for you.

Those who simply wish to step back into the past and are not embarking on extensive research will be happy to know that significant portions of the collection are being digitized and published online. At present there are two major repositories of this content: Kansas State University Libraries' Digital Collections and The Internet Archive.

To access Kansas State University Libraries' Digital Collections, simple visit the Libraries home page at http://www.lib.ksu.edu, hover over the Research menu, and click Digital Collections & Galleries. From this page you can reach specific collections. A small set of K-State Historical Photographs is available at the link in the top middle of the page. Digital Collections is a link to the other digital collections, including Notable Women of K-State, Kansas State University Yearbooks from 1891-1925, and the Kansas State University Collection which features the book, History of the Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science.

To access K-State Libraries' content on the Internet Archive, navigate to http://archive.org, search for Kansas State University, and click the Kansas State University folder. Within that folder you will find Kansas State University Catalogs (1925-2006), and Kansas State University Yearbooks (1926-2009). The latter will have a new yearbook added each year, but the most recent three years will not be included.

These digital collections are just the first of many more to come. In the near future, we hope to add access to old Kansas State University newspapers. We will also continue to highlight the ongoing work of K-State's faculty, staff, and students through Kansas State University's Research Exchange (K-REX), K-State's Biodiversity Information System (BiodIS), and other platforms. Stay tuned --- more of the past will be coming to your future soon!

Jason Coleman

Short Cuts: SearchIt! Try it and tell us what you think!

Hey students! We've got a new tool for you to try. It's called SearchIt!

This tool will search across nearly all of our print and digital collections with one easy push of the button! Need to find everything there is to know about college sports or diabetes or animal rights or the French Revolution? SearchIt would be the tool for you!

To try it out, start at K-State Libraries. Then in the middle box, go to the text "Want to search everything? Help test our new search tool and tell us what you think," and click on the link. Or simply click here!

Want to learn more? Watch this video for details.

We are testing SearchIt to work out any kinks or bugs. It's important for us to get your feedback. Tell us what you think by completing this comment form.

So have you ever slept in Hale?

There are hundreds of people every year who study & nap in the library, but even if you haven’t, think about all the destruction that can be done to that furniture! Needless to say, the soft seating is due for
replacement, which is happening this summer.

Whether you visit Hale daily, or just during finals week make sure you stop by the 2^nd floor by April 20^th to give your input on what furniture will be purchased. There is a long line of furniture against the back wall, each with its own poster for you to write your opinion on. We want your input since you will be the one using the furniture so you should head over here and take a seat!

P.S. Please refrain from writing any inappropriate comments, we want your voice to be heard but any offensive or inappropriate comments will be covered.