Library News

Syracuse University Library will host a panel discussion about supporting responsible student research and the complexities of plagiarism on Tuesday, March 6 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons on the 1st floor of Bird Library.

Geared to faculty, librarians, graduate student TA's, student advisors, and university administrators, this discussion will offer local, institutional, and cultural perspectives on the issue, including the effects of plagiarism on different student populations and what faculty may do about it.

Panelists from several areas of the University will discuss University policy, report on their own experiences and concerns, present examples of current research in student writing and citing behavior, and discuss approaches to teaching that could help faculty prepare students to conduct research responsibly.

Panelists:

• Gary Pavela, Director of the University's Academic Integrity Office
  
• Rebecca Moore Howard, Professor of Writing and Rhetoric
  
• Steven Lux, Director of the Executive Education Program, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
  
• Diane Wiener, Director of the Disability Cultural Center

Contact amullike@syr.edu or x9519 if you need accommodations for a disability.

Posted by Julie Sharkey on January 26, 2012 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library's spring exhibition "The Power and The Piety: the World of Medieval and Renaissance Europe" opens with a reception on Thursday, January 26, at 5 p.m. in the Special Collections gallery on Bird Library's sixth floor. Curated by History Professor Chris Kyle with Senior Director of Special Collections Sean Quimby, it showcases the library's collection of illuminated manuscripts and early printed works, including a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible.

The title "The Power and The Piety," refers to extraordinary influence that secular monarchies and the Church had on the lives of everyday men and women. Richly illustrated late medieval psalters and books of hours exemplify the painstaking attention that the pious paid to their spiritual well-being. But the printing revolution made it possible for new ideas to spread more rapidly. Printed works like Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" (1651) signified the increasing power wielded by kings, queens and other secular authorities. As the Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution took hold of Europe, the power of the Catholic Church further waned. "The Power and the Piety" includes such important works as the first King James Bible (1611) and a second printing of Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" (1566), which argued in favor of a heliocentric, or sun-centered, universe.

The exhibition is arranged thematically, highlighting the overarching themes of power and piety, as well as English literature, music, architecture, science and fine bindings. According to curator Kyle, "The Power and the Piety highlights the world that shaped our own--from religious martyrdom, to the politics of Machiavelli and the extraordinary prose of Shakespeare, this exhibition brings to life the rich and vibrant eras of Medieval and Renaissance Europe."

The exhibition and reception is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the 2011-12 Ray Smith Symposium "Sex and Power from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment." Based in Syracuse University's College of Arts in Sciences, the symposium features seminars given by prominent visiting scholars. For more information please visit raysmithsymposium.syr.edu.

The Special Collections Research Center is a hub for primary source research at Syracuse University Library. It is devoted to collecting and preserving rare research materials in all formats and to connecting students, faculty, outside scholars and the community to its collections. For more information, visit scrc.syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on January 24, 2012 | Permalink

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of his first album release, Access & Resource Sharing presents a display on the exemplary career of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The display features books, recordings, and other materials, supplemented with personal items on loan from Library staff.

Featured aspects of Dylan's career include his arrival in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, his legendary appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, his conversion to Christianity in the late 1970s, and his creative resurgence beginning in the late 1990s.

The display is located on the 4th floor of Bird Library and will remain up until further notice.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on January 13, 2012 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library has acquired the personal papers of the flamboyant and trend-setting architect Morris Lapidus. Lapidus, who died in 2001, is perhaps best known for hotels like the Fontainebleau, Americana, and Eden Roc in Miami Beach, Fla., buildings which embodied the growth of leisure in American life during the 1950s and 1960s. The Fontainebleau has served as a backdrop for variety of iconic scenes in American film, including the James Bond thriller "Goldfinger" (1964). Most of Lapidus' buildings exhibited a mélange of historical styles--French provincial, Italian and Baroque--and anticipated the post-modernism of later architects.

Lapidus was born in Odessa, Russia, in 1902, but his family immigrated to the United States soon thereafter. As a wide-eyed youth, he marveled at the splendor of Coney Island and he would later impart a similar spirit of excess to his work as an architect. That spirit would place him at odds with his function-minded modernist peers. However, contrary to the editor's choice of title for his 1996 autobiography, "Too Much is Never Enough," Lapidus was interested less in hedonism than he was in a "quest for emotion and motion in architecture."

Frustrated by his sometimes antagonistic relationship with the architectural establishment, Lapidus destroyed many of his firm's records when he retired in 1984. However, he retained a core collection of especially valuable papers that he entrusted to his last collaborator and confidant, architect Deborah Desilets. The archive includes a large collection of photographs dating to the 1920s, conceptual drawings, manuscript drafts of his written works and correspondence with his long-time friend, mystery writer Ellery Queen.

Desilets approached Syracuse, which has held a small Lapidus collection since 1967, and a gift of the material was finalized in December. Speaking on her decision to place the archive with Syracuse, Desilets says, "The archive is an extremely important missing link in the discourse on Lapidus' influence on 20th-century architecture. I am thrilled to place it in such a distinguished research institution where it will be available for use by generations of students and scholars."

In Syracuse's Special Collections Research Center, the Lapidus archive will reside in one of the most important mid-century modern collections in the country. Among the other architects represented are Marcel Breuer, William Lescaze and Richard Neutra, as well as designers like Russel Wright and Walter Dorwin Teague.

Syracuse School of Architecture faculty member Jon Yoder offered this assessment of the Lapidus archive's value for teaching and research: "The recent proliferation of architect-designed boutique hotels, coupled with the pervasive disciplinary focus on architectural effects suggests that Lapidus was indeed one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. This acquisition of his personal archive comes as welcome news to designers and scholars who are finally beginning to reassess the lavish contributions of this much-maligned architect across a surprisingly broad spectrum of design disciplines."

For more information, contact Sean Quimby, senior director of Special Collections, at 315-443-9759 or smquimby@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on December 13, 2011 | Permalink

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide more comfortable and functional spaces for research and study, Bird Library's Team Rooms and Technology Rooms were recently outfitted with new carpeting, tables, and chairs. They look like new spaces and are much more comfortable.

Check them out and let us know what you think!

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 17, 2011 | Permalink

The latest Biblio Gallery exhibit is Winter's Breath: from Guilty Pleasures by VPA graduate student Jay Muhlin.

The harshness of winter is best survived with comfort and humor. Jay Muhlin's photographs of the outside world are slow, chilly, and bewildering, but they show how inside, we dwell intimately in warmth and small festivities. The images on display are selected from a current body of work that will be made into a book entitled Guilty Pleasures. Images of books are a motif in Muhlin's Guilty Pleasures, and this exhibit showcases a survey of texts that talk to winter and touch on themes within the photographs.

Stay warm and enjoy.

For more information on exhibiting in the Biblio Gallery, see this form.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 4, 2011 | Permalink

Selections from the Photography and Literacy Project (PAL) show "Can You See Me?" are currently on display in a new gallery space on the 6th floor of Bird Library, a collaboration between the Library and the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

The show is the result of a collaboration between Adam Lutwin's 11th grade English class at Fowler High School and the Photography and Literacy Project. Fowler students were given digital cameras and journals to complete specific photo and writing assignments. Under the guidance of SU student mentors, students selected their best work for display.

Based on the ongoing work of SU instructor Stephen Mahan of VPA, PAL provides an opportunity for local students to explore their world through photography, video and sound to promote critical thinking skills, writing, visual literacy and self-esteem. Mahan started his work at SU a few years ago by collaborating with the Syracuse City School District (SCSD), CMAC, VPA, the Partnership for Better Education, the Creative Writing Program, Light Work, and other area institutions. At its core, the project encourages students to explore their world as they photograph, film, and capture sound recordings from their world and their lives, and then use their documents as prompts for verbal and written expression.

Mahan, who often quotes British author and education expert Sir Ken Robinson's line about schools 'filled with brilliant kids who think they are not,' says his passion for using photography as an educational tool began while he was a graduate student at the University of Buffalo in the 1990s. "Our educational system is set up to deal most effectively with one type of learner... so what I try to do is even the playing field by using a camera as a storytelling device that articulates and validates each individual's point of view, which builds self esteem. When the pictures are all laid out on the table, it is impossible to tell which kid has difficulties, and that is what motivates my passion, " says Mahan.

The PAL project has been featured in Syracuse Magazine, Jerk Magazine, and other articles. For more information, contact Mahan at scmahan@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on October 17, 2011 | Permalink

In an effort to help protect your laptop from theft -- and yourself from resulting data loss and identity theft -- the SU Library now has laptop security cables available for loan at the Technology Support Desk. The cables, for use with your own laptop or one of ours, circulate for up to six hours at a time.

When using the security cables, be sure to tether your laptop to a strong, unbreakable object that won't move, such as the anchor bolts found on many tables in Bird.

Make a habit of locking your laptop, even when you're working on it, regardless of where you are. Do not leave your laptop unattended and use the cables for added security.

Security cables and locks are also available for purchase at the SU Bookstore.

Brought to you by SU Library and SU Department of Public Safety!

Posted by Julie Sharkey on October 13, 2011 | Permalink

Knovel, one of the key engineering resources brought to you Syracuse University Library, has kicked off its 2011 University Challenge.

Solve three problems using Knovel for a chance to win an iPad 2, cash, and lots of other great prizes.

Last year, Andy Quach, a sophomore in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, won second prize.

How It Works -- Play Two Ways

1. Go to www.knoveluniversitychallenge.com or the Facebook version of the game.
2. Choose your difficulty level.
3. Use the search box* to answer three questions correctly.
4. Share with Friends -- schools with 100 correct entries or more are guaranteed entry into a contest-within-the-contest, ensuring one student participant with three correct answers will be the winner of an iPod Nano.

*For entries to be valid, and to qualify for prizes, you must use Knovel to answer the questions.

The contest ends midnight on December 1.

Have a question or need help using Knovel? Contact Anne E. Rauh, Engineering and Computer Science Librarian, at aerauh@syr.edu.

Posted by Julie Sharkey on October 6, 2011 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library now hosts a campus-wide subscription to the international news media monitoring database known as World News Connection (formerly known as FBIS). This news database can be accessed by S.U. affiliated students, faculty, staff by entering the title in the Databases search box on library.syr.edu. Alternatively, use this direct URL, which is also suitable for embedding by faculty into course websites, Blackboard, etc.: http://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=http://wnc.dialog.com/

About World News Connection®***
New information is entered into WNC hourly within 24-72 hours from the time of original publication or broadcast. World News Connection® (WNC) is an online news service, that offers an extensive array of translated and English-language news and information.

Particularly effective in its coverage of local media sources, WNC provides you with the power to identify what really is happening in a specific country or region. Compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources, the information in WNC covers significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events.

The material in WNC is provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Open Source Center (OSC), a U.S. government agency. For over 60 years, analysts from OSC's domestic and overseas bureaus have monitored timely and pertinent open-source materials, including gray literature. Uniquely, WNC allows you to take advantage of the intelligence gathering experience of OSC.

The information is obtained from full text and summaries of newspaper articles, websites, conference proceedings, television and radio broadcasts, periodicals, and non-classified technical reports. New information is entered into WNC hourly every day. Generally, this information is available within 24-72 hours from the time of original publication or broadcast.

For more information about World News Connection, or other SU Library news and media databases, contact public communications and political science subject specialist librarian, Michael Pasqualoni at mjpasqua@syr.edu (315) 443-3715

***Source: World News Connection Website

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on September 29, 2011 | Permalink

Syracuse University Press staff have a new office location at 548 Bird Library. The Press Director, Acquisitions Editors, and Marketing Team will meet with faculty and students interested in exploring the publishing process and discussing opportunities for working with the Press. Press staff will also offer assistance in developing strategies for approaching publishers regarding book project proposals.

This central location in Bird Library offers a convenient space for the Press staff to meet with SU series editors, campus organizations, SU subject librarians, and others.

Current hours are Monday 1-2 p.m. (Director), Tuesday 2:30-4:30 p.m. (Acquisitions), Wednesday 2:30-4:30 p.m. (Marketing), or by appointment. For more information about Syracuse University Press, visit their website.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on September 28, 2011 | Permalink

Education Research Complete is the most authoritative online resource for education research. It is a bibliographic and full-text database covering scholarly research and information relating to all areas of education. Topics include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing.

Education Research Complete also covers areas of curriculum instruction as well as administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. The database covers more than 2,300 journals and includes full text for over 1,400 of them. This database also includes full text for more than 550 books and monographs, as well as numerous education-related conference papers.

To access the database, point your browser to Education Research Complete.

For more information or to provide feedback, please contact Mary DeCarlo.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on September 26, 2011 | Permalink

In the course of organizing the Grove Press archive in the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Library, a project funded by a Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), archivist Susan Kline discovered the first page of a letter that Malcolm X wrote to Alex Haley during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. The page, which had been missing for decades, was found in a box of miscellaneous materials related to the Evergreen Review, Grove's monthly magazine. It may have been misplaced during one of the many moves of the Grove office or otherwise separated during the book publication process.

The letter belongs in the editorial files of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. On September 22, 1965, Grove editor Dick Seaver stated that Grove Press considered the Autobiography to be "one of the most important books we have ever published." It went on to sell millions of copies worldwide and was judged by Time magazine in 1999 as one of the 10 "most important non-fiction works of the 20th century," confirming Seaver's earlier assessment.

The seven-page letter, hand written on hotel stationery, is significant in that it outlines Malcolm X's softening views on race based on his experiences in Mecca. On the newly discovered page, Malcolm writes, "this pilgrimage to the Holiest of Cities has not only been a unique experience for me, but one which has made me the recipient of numerous unexpected blessings beyond my wildest dreams."

The first page of the letter is important because it provides the precise date and time Malcolm X recorded his thoughts to Haley: Friday, April 25, 1964, 9 a.m. While the last page of the letter mentions the Autobiography and Malcolm X offers his best wishes to Haley's wife, the first page also directly indicates the letter was addressed to Alex Haley.

Library Dean Suzanne Thorin said of the find, "This discovery is a perfect example of the very real value of CLIR's Hidden Collections grants. We may never have located this historic item without the funding we received to process the Grove Press collection."

The intact letter helps complete the picture offered to scholars who wish to research the development of this book. By reuniting the pages of the letter, researchers can now study the letter in its entirety, which may enable them to shed additional light on Malcolm X's experience during his pilgrimage to Mecca and the relationship between Malcolm X and Haley.

The fact that this item was located at long last underscores the importance of devoting attention to archival materials like these. The CLIR grant project will make this letter and the other discrete materials in the Grove Press archive discoverable and available for research, contributing to a greater understanding of this period in history.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on July 25, 2011 | Permalink

Ted Koppel, original anchor of the ground-breaking ABC News program Nightline, has agreed to make a donation of videotapes and other items he has prepared or received during his career in broadcast journalism to the Syracuse University Library.

Koppel began his broadcasting career at Syracuse University in 1956, ultimately serving as SU radio station WAER's Program Director in 1959-60. Now, 51 years later, the largest body of his work, including programs that ran in the late 1950's on WAER, is finding its home on the Syracuse campus.

"Ted Koppel is one of the world's most decorated journalists because throughout his career he consistently has made a real difference in the world with his work," says SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. "Establishing this new repository where he launched his unprecedented career assures that this treasure trove will continue to make a difference for generations of researchers and students to come."

The donation consists primarily of videotapes and also includes certain correspondence, photographs, cartoons, awards, and notebooks chosen by Koppel, including those from Koppel's time as a Vietnam War correspondent. The principal component of the donation is a complete collection of videotapes of Nightline and The Koppel Report, news programs that were originally broadcast by ABC News. The Koppel Collection will represent a significant addition to the Library's resources on the history of broadcast journalism.

The Koppel Collection will be housed in the Library's Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), where an archivist will commence the task of processing and inventorying the collection being donated. The Nightline program videotapes will first be digitized and then will be preserved in collaboration with the University's Information Technology and Services division.

The Library will work closely with the other components of the University to ensure that the materials in the Koppel Collection are available for use by faculty, scholars, and researchers, especially in the fields of broadcast journalism, history, international relations, and speech. Digital video and other digitized materials will be made available for teaching and research to classes through the University's course management system. Access to Koppel Collection materials will also be provided through the SCRC reading room.

"We are grateful to Ted Koppel for selecting Syracuse University as the recipient of his archive of videotapes and other materials selected by him from his illustrious career. The Koppel Collection will be an extraordinarily rich resource for students and scholars in a variety of disciplines, especially the Newhouse School," said Suzanne Thorin, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian.

Edward James "Ted" Koppel, born February 8, 1940 in Lancashire, England, began his broadcasting career at WMCA Radio in New York. He joined ABC Radio News in 1963 and moved to television in 1966. During his 42 year tenure at ABC News, Koppel served as anchor of The ABC Saturday Night News, chief diplomatic correspondent, Vietnam War correspondent, and Hong Kong bureau chief. As anchor of ABC News Nightline from its debut in 1980 until late 2005, Koppel covered every major news story and presidential campaign for over 25 years. Koppel left Nightline in November 2005 and subsequently worked as managing editor for a series of news and public affairs programs that were cablecast on the Discovery Channel. He is currently a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, an author of newspaper and magazine opinion pieces, and a guest speaker.

Over his 50 year career in broadcasting, Koppel has earned every major industry honor, including 42 Emmy Awards; eight George Foster Peabody Awards; 12 Columbia-duPont Awards, including the gold award created especially to honor the week-long series that Nightline did on and from South Africa in 1985; 11 Overseas Press Club Awards, more than any other journalist; two George Polk Awards; and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, given by the Society of Professional Journalists. Other awards include the Gabriel Personal Achievement Award from the National Catholic Association of Broadcasters and Communicators and selection as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France.

Koppel holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Speech) from Syracuse University and a master's degree in mass communications research and political science from Stanford University. In addition, Koppel has received more than 20 honorary degrees from universities in the United States.

For more information about this collection, contact Suzanne Thorin, Dean of Libraries and University Librarian, at sethorin@syr.edu or 315 443-5533.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on June 9, 2011 | Permalink

Sound Beat, a public radio program originating in the Belfer Audio Archive at the Syracuse University Library, was awarded a $15,000 Arts on Radio and Television grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Sound Beat is a daily 90-second public radio show and companion website that uses historic sound recordings from the 1890s through the 1960s, along with entertaining back-stories, to educate listeners about the arts and history. These forgotten recordings tell us what Americans listened to and laughed at, what they enjoyed and what they valued. Sound Beat is a daily 1½-minute glimpse into the American cultural experience that is now being carried by 63 stations nationwide.

The raw material for Sound Beat is Syracuse University Library's Belfer Audio Archive, which holds approximately 500,000 historic audio recordings. Of particular note is the Savada Collection, a recent donation of 200,000 78s from the family of Morton Savada that comprised the holdings of his Manhattan retail store, Records Revisited. Classical music performances, operatic works, film scores, and spoken-word recordings are well-represented, as are those from distinctly American musical forms like jazz, bebop, country, and bluegrass. In addition, Sound Beat features recordings of political leaders, poets, philosophers, and actors, as well as early radio broadcasts and unreleased tracks from major recording companies. Nearly all are out of print and largely unavailable today.

The latest round of NEA funding for fiscal year 2011 totaled more than $88 million awarded through 1,145 grants to not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide. Arts on Radio and Television grants support the development, production, and national distribution of radio and television programs on the arts. In this category, 64 grants out of 145 eligible applications were recommended for funding, for a total of $4 million. The full listing of awardees is located here.

To hear Sound Beat episodes, visit soundbeat.org. For more information, contact Sound Beat project manager Pamela McLaughlin at 315.443.9788 or pwmclaug@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on May 19, 2011 | Permalink

A new grouping of 20 computers and a printer is now available in a quiet area on the 2nd floor of Bird Library. Located on the east side of the building behind the current periodicals, these workstations are available for use by SU-affiliated students, faculty, and staff. The new cluster is a joint effort between Campus ITS and the Library and provides the same software applications as other ITS computing labs on campus.

New workstations include Microsoft Visio, Project, and Visual Studio, in addition to the suite of applications available on other Library workstations. Based on the outcome of this pilot, the Library hopes to add these applications to the remaining public computers in the Library in order to provide a consistent computing experience for library users.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on March 23, 2011 | Permalink

The push for sustainability on campus is getting a boost from a new gadget that is now available for checkout at Bird Library's Technology Support and Loan desk. The iPod-sized apparatus, known as Kill A Watt, displays power usage and cost for individual household appliances. While utility meters installed by power supply companies show overall household energy usage, the Kill A Watt allows consumers to see how much an individual appliance contributes to energy costs.

Syracuse University's Sustainability Division is promoting the Kill A Watt system as a way to spur awareness of household energy consumption and hopefully alter wasteful practices. Richard Martin, a sustainability analyst for the Sustainability Division, believes the system has real potential to increase energy awareness. "Users of the system will understand what aspects of their current behavior are using the most energy," said Martin. "Those are the aspects I hope they will rethink."

The system is easy to use, and for anyone who can set a digital kitchen timer, setting up the Kill A Watt is just as simple. Simply unplug an appliance, plug the Kill A Watt into the vacant socket and reconnect the appliance to the Kill A Watt. After entering the cost of energy, the system begins tallying usage and cost. The Kill A Watt will also project the appliances' power consumption and energy cost up to one year.

To ensure the most accurate reading and prediction, Martin suggests measuring the usage of a single appliance for seven days. "In terms of filtering out variability due to our behavioral patterns," said Martin, "a week is good representative time slice." This means that during the two-week checkout time from the Bird Library, students and faculty can accurately measure the usage and cost of two appliances.

"There are definitely a lot of people who are thinking about the future, thinking about energy use," said Ted Traver, a project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group. He sees a definite intellectual market for the Kill A Watt on campus. "To gain a cost awareness and have an environmental impact - people would love that."
Even though household appliances are usually marked with power ratings, it's difficult to monitor power consumption without a meter like the Kill A Watt. Appliances like toasters, microwaves and light bulbs are typically marked with the maximum possible power consumption, although that's not always the amount being used. Gauging is also difficult for automatic appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators because the amount of daily run time is not recorded. Items like cell phone chargers and computer cords draw power even when disconnected. The Kill A Watt mediates all of these issues.

"All the stuff that you don't even realize takes energy - it does," said Traver. "And it's really good to have a system in place to monitor how much energy you're actually using."

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on March 4, 2011 | Permalink

WAER broadcast the inaugural episode of Sound Beat, a new 90-second public radio module that highlights recordings from the Belfer Audio Archive, on Tuesday, March 1 at 3:30 p.m.

Sound Beat is a quick trip through the history of recorded sound. Each episode focuses on one particular recording from the archive and provides a back story detailing its place in recording history. Featured recordings come from a wide range of periods and genres. Popular and classical music performances, operatic works, and film scores are well-represented, as are those from distinctly American musical forms like jazz, bebop, country, and bluegrass.

And it's not just music. Sound Beat also features recordings from some of the great thinkers, political figures, and luminaries from the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries. People like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, and Theodore Roosevelt, to name just a few.

Producer Jim O'Connor, Bob Hodge and others have been mining the Belfer holdings for interesting recordings. Others involved in the project include host Brett Barry, a Newhouse alum. Credit for the original idea for a radio show focusing on Belfer collections goes to SU Magazine's David Marc. Theme music was written by Grammy-nominated composer David Wolfert, who also has SU connections.

Ron Ockert, program director at WAER, had this to say, "I love Sound Beat! There's nothing else like it out there. It is equal parts history and fun and makes a great complement to WAER's lineup."

If you just want to listen in, every Sound Beat episode will be available, along with other interesting facts and features, at soundbeat.org. WAER will carry it in the 3:30 p.m. daily time slot.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on March 1, 2011 | Permalink

Linda Galloway was recently appointed as biology, chemistry and forensic sciences librarian at Syracuse University Library. In this position, Ms. Galloway works with faculty and students to facilitate access to the information resources and tools necessary for their academic success. She will be involved in a number of collaborative initiatives to promote the Library's value-added content and connect researchers to the Library.

Prior to her current appointment, Ms. Galloway was an instruction, grants and reference librarian at SUNY-ESF. She has a BS in chemistry from Long Island University and an MSLIS from Syracuse University.

Ms. Galloway has served in leadership roles in the Upstate Chapter of the Special Libraries Association and is a member of the Academic, Chemistry, and Science and Technology divisions. She also serves on the board of the Pi Lambda Sigma Chapter of Beta Phi Mu, the international library science honor society. She can be reached at 443-9766 or Galloway@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on February 25, 2011 | Permalink

Explore the world of U.S. and international advertising via the Adforum database. This latest addition to SU Library's collection is an online audiovisual library of more than 120,000 advertisements (1999-present), including:

• television ads
  
• digital/Web ads
  
• social media ads
  
• print (magazine & newspaper) ads
  
• radio ads
  

and various other forms of "Out of Home" advertising like billboards, posters, and vehicle mounted images. Content originates from over 20,000 advertising agencies in dozens of countries. Award-winning advertising can also be retrieved by award name and year (e.g., Clio, Effie, One Show, etc).

The database offers a variety of other features, including a searchable listing of ad agencies, job postings, a blog, and much more. Additional functionality, such as the ability to maintain a customized playlist of favorite ads, is available to users who register to join the Adforum community.

Adforum's convenient online platform is accessible to faculty, students, and staff from on- and off-campus locations. The Adforum archive may be smaller than the wide variety of content dispersed across the free web, YouTube, and numerous advertising agency websites, however Adforum's aggregated content offers greater stability and far more extensive indexing of content, all within a single, internationally oriented collection.

To access Adforum, visit http://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=http://www.adforum.com/syr or simply type "Adforum" into the databases section of the search box on the Library home page.

For more information about Adforum, contact Public Communications Librarian, Michael Pasqualoni at (315) 443-3715 or mjpasqua@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on February 21, 2011 | Permalink

Six newly designated "Team Rooms," located on the 3rd and 4th floors of Bird Library, are available for group work or projects requiring the use of technology. Team Rooms with Technology can be used for presentation practice, web conferencing, and other group project work.

Each room is equipped with a large LCD screen, desktop PC, and a media control panel. Rooms can be customized with additional technology, including:

• practice presentation equipment (camcorder and tripod)
• webcam and microphone
• wireless keyboard and mouse
• cables to connect loaner or user supplied laptop

Team Rooms are available to SU students, faculty and staff by reservation. Rooms that have not been reserved are available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information or to submit a reservation, see http://library.syr.edu/services/space/team_room_form.php.

To sign out a key, obtain additional equipment, or inquire about room use, visit the Technology Support & Loan desk on the first floor of Bird Library or call 443-4160.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on February 9, 2011 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library is pleased to announce the availability of the Research Helper guide, a student-designed booklet intended to help users organize and record the strategies and resources they use in conducting a research project. A pdf version of the Research Helper can be found at http://tinyurl.com/4lm8vfb. Print copies are available at any library service desk.

Research Helper simplifies the research process and the creation of bibliographies and works cited pages by offering a convenient, central location to record keywords, names of databases and journals, detailed citations, and other relevant research data. Research Helper also includes advice on how to begin conducting research, suggestions on how to create an effective search strategy, and describes a variety of resources available within the Library.

The back cover of the guide features a list of Library contacts for getting help with research, including text, online, instant message, phone, email, or in person options.

The Research Helper was designed by Allie Jennings '10 (VPA) as a project for her Communications Design course. Several Syracuse University librarians also assisted in developing the content.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on February 7, 2011 | Permalink

The iPOLL Databank is now available to the SU campus and all affiliated students, faculty, and staff as one of Syracuse University Library's newest databases. Published by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut, this public opinion repository draws upon academic, media, and commercial polls originating from more than 150 organizations (e.g., Gallup, Harris, CBS/New York Times, Fox News, et al). iPOLL covers over one half million polling questions and responses from 1935 to the present.

iPOLL's features include question level retrieval with links to full results, links from questions to study abstracts and questionnaires, and unlimited download of datasets via RoperExpress (in SPSS or ASCII formats). Once inside the database, users can also register for accounts that enhance their ability to manipulate and save search results.

To access the iPOLL Databank from on or off campus, point your browser to http://libezproxy.syr.edu/login?url=http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/iPOLL/login/ipoll_login.html or, alternatively, type ipoll (all lowercase) into the Databases section of the search box on the Library home page.

For more information on the iPOLL Databank, contact Michael Pasqualoni, Political Science Subject Specialist Librarian, at mjpasqua@syr.edu or 443-3715.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on January 6, 2011 | Permalink

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $505,000 to Syracuse University to support the positions of director and sound archivist for the Library's Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive. The Library will work closely with the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs to integrate Belfer resources into their scholarly work and to make it easier for scholars to discover and use audio resources in a digital environment. The award also provides funding to equip a smart classroom in the Belfer facility.

Vice-Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina spoke with enthusiasm about the initiative, saying, "Syracuse University is grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for this generous grant. By rebuilding the leadership, we will rekindle the involvement of faculty here and nationally in this exemplary research archive. This award will enable us to reach our goal of making Belfer's treasures broadly available for teaching, research, and listening."

The Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive at Syracuse University is a significant research repository that documents the history of American recorded sound. The collections have grown to more than 500,000 recordings, making it one of the nation's foremost audio archives. Belfer's extensive collections and playback equipment represent a wide range of audio recording history, from the earliest experimental recordings on tinfoil, to cylinders, Edison Diamond discs, 78-rpm and 45-rpm recordings, and a variety of audiotapes. The collections are especially rich in popular vocal and instrumental music, and include classical, jazz, marches, novelty, comedy, folk, country, ethnic, and experimental genres.

In addition to music, the Belfer collections also contain recordings of political leaders, poets, philosophers, and famous actors, as well as early radio broadcasts and unreleased discs from major recording companies. Famous voices include Thomas Edison, George Bernard Shaw, Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, Margaret Bourke-White, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Albert Schweitzer, and Benjamin Spock.

The Director, who will teach in one or more of the Belfer's constituent academic departments, will promote the innovative use of the collections in research and teaching and will have an established reputation in the history of recorded sound and/or in the policy, law, and economics governing the use of recorded sound. The Archivist will be responsible for providing access to Belfer's recordings, selecting appropriate discovery tools (including MARC cataloging, EAD finding aids, and new methodologies) and devising new delivery methods.

The Dean of the Library, Suzanne Thorin, commented that the new state-of-the-art classroom will help to ensure that the Belfer Archive becomes a recognized campus center for research and teaching in the history of recorded sound. Mellon funds will be the catalyst for University investment in renovating this space, which will double the capacity of the existing classroom and make available technologies that will enable faculty and students to experiment with historical and new recorded sound.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on December 21, 2010 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library is pleased to announce the launch of its mobile web site. Optimized for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry smart phones, the site can be accessed at http://m.library.syr.edu. Also, users who visit the regular Library homepage from a mobile device will be redirected automatically to the mobile version.

The new mobile site offers quick, convenient access to core library information sources, including library hours, contact info, and locations. Via the mobile Library site, users will be able to:
• Search the Library catalog, WorldCat, and mobile versions of a number of Library databases
• Check Library hours for all locations
• Find the locations of all SU libraries and collections
• View floor maps of Bird Library
• Browse the Library staff directory and automatically email or place a call to each individual.
• Get research assistance via text message, instant message, email, or phone
• View Library events

Full functionality of the mobile services will depend on the data plan, connectivity, and capabilities of the phone used.

The mobile site will continue to grow and develop based on feedback from users. Please use the "Give us your feedback" link on the site to send us your ideas for enhancements.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on December 2, 2010 | Permalink

Those needing poster-size printing on campus have a new option available in Bird Library's Learning Commons. A new color plotter (HP DesignJet Z6100PS) unveiled this week prints documents up to 36" wide. Printing to the plotter is available from all Windows-based public workstations in the Learning Commons (lower level, 1st and 2nd floors of Bird Library) from 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., Monday - Friday and from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday during the regular semester. Cost is $2.00 per linear foot.

After sending a print job to the plotter, users will need to visit the Technology Support and Loan desk on the 1st floor and request that their print job be released from the queue and sent to the plotter. For more information about the new plotter, including configuration assistance, sample prints jobs and other documentation, see http://tinyurl.com/37aud4z or visit the Technology Support and Loan desk.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 9, 2010 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library announces the launch of SUrface, a full-text, multi-media online database that provides open access to the extensive and diverse array of scholarly, professional, scientific, and creative output produced at Syracuse University. At the same time, SUrface increases the visibility of authors' works; maximizes research impact; facilitates interdisciplinary research; and provides local, regional, and global communities with immediate and permanent access.

A launch party will be held Monday, October 18, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons of Bird Library. Cake and light refreshments will be served. All faculty and graduate students are invited to attend.

Special workshops will take place in room 046 of Bird Library to introduce SUrface to those interested in depositing their work. Hours are:

• Tuesday, October 19 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
  
• Wednesday, October 20 from 10:00 a.m. to noon
  
• Thursday, October 21 from 3:30 - 5:30
  

Why join SUrface?
• Increase your visibility
• Showcase your work in multiple formats
• Learn what colleagues are doing
• Engage with the local and global community
• Preserve your electronic research

Making accessible the knowledge, creativity, research, and innovation of Syracuse University is the very essence of "scholarship in action" and helps facilitate the crucial mission of the university as a public good.

About SUrface
Beginning in December 2009, a team of librarians, staff, and students from the Syracuse University Library, the H. Douglas Barclay Law Library, the University Archives, Syracuse University Press, and the iSchool, with advice and consultation from University faculty, collaboratively planned and implemented SUrface, the Syracuse University Research Facility And Collaborative Environment. Their efforts are now reaching fruition, with over 1,000 Syracuse University documents now housed in SUrface.

For more information, contact Charlotte Hess, Associate Dean for Research, Collections, and Scholarly Communication at 443-5528 or hess@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on October 6, 2010 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library's Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) has amassed a fine collection of graphic novels, or novels without words. Striking specimens of the genre from the 1920s and 1930s are now on view in an SCRC exhibition entitled The Silent Scream: Conflict in Novels without Words. Selections for display were made in keeping with this year's Syracuse Symposium theme: "conflict."

In addition to conflict, novels without words often portray a quest for self-fulfillment or social justice. Because of their historical context, they may also depict the struggle between the individual and the industrialized world. Similarly, the law, the police, and the armed forces may all be viewed as instruments of repression in graphic novels.

The artists represented are William Gropper (1897-1977), a caricaturist, cartoonist, book illustrator, and social activist in the causes of labor; Laurence Hyde (1914-1987), who produced wood engravings and linocuts for books, as well as pen-and-ink illustrations for various left-wing journals; Frans Masereel (1889-1972), creator of stark and moving woodcuts; Giacomo Patri (1898-1978), who helped to promote the growing labor movement through illustration of union organizing pamphlets; John Vassos (1898-1985), commercial artist and book illustrator; and Lynd Ward (1905-1985), wood engraver known for his portrayal of quests after social justice and the fulfillment of human and artistic potential.

The exhibition is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, excepting holidays, on the sixth floor of Bird Library on the Syracuse University campus.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on September 17, 2010 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library has obtained a campus-wide site license for online access to the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The Chronicle of Higher Education offers news, information, and employment opportunities for college and university faculty and administrators, along with a variety of newsletters. Its digital publications are updated every weekday; back issues are available from 1995.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers content for nonprofit organizations, grant makers, and other philanthropic enterprises. Digital copies of the publication are updated every other Monday and back issues are available from October 1997. The Chronicle of Philanthropy's free e-newsletter, Philanthropy Today, is available daily.

To be recognized as an authorized user of the Library subscription, including premium content, access either publication from the Library homepage. Enter the title on the E-Journals search tab and choose the entry labeled Miscellaneous Ejournals on the search results page to connect directly to the Chronicle web site. When connecting from off campus and prompted to login, use your SU NetID and password. The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Chronicle of Philanthropy may also be found at http://chronicle.com/ and http://philanthropy.com/, respectively, however premium content may not be available.

The Library's license does not include an obligation to maintain a print subscription. Any pre-existing individual or departmental subscriptions will be unaffected by this new access.

For more information about this subscription, contact Robert Cleary at 443-2989 or email rmcleary@syr.edu. For assistance accessing these titles, contact Kelley Lasher at 443-6179 or email kllasher@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on September 15, 2010 | Permalink

The Library has created a brand new virtual tour, with web, video, and slide show versions available.

The Virtual Tour provides an overview of library places, services, and collections for new and returning students. Please send questions and comments to Learning Commons Librarian Pamela Thomas, chair of the Virtual Tour Team at 443-5526.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on August 17, 2010 | Permalink

Want to make a difference in improving Learning Commons' services? Don't have much time, but still want to have an impact? Now is your chance to volunteer as a Learning Commons student advisor!

• Requires little time.


• Share your insights through emails, Facebook, or other means - on an as-needed basis.


• We ask for your opinions about the library, you give us your feedback.


• Your wisdom and experience will help the library improve its services for you and other students.


• Our focus is on the Learning Commons, which is the lower 3 floors of Bird Library.

Image courtesy of American University of Beirut.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on August 13, 2010 | Permalink

The Productive Researcher, the Library's online tutorial series, has been accepted into the Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) project and added to the PRIMO database. It will also be featured as a PRIMO "Site of the Month." PRIMO is a project of the Association of the Instruction Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

The project team consisted of Patrick Williams, Abby Kasowitz-Scheer, Pam Thomas, and Lisa Moeckel. Several library staff also assisted in this project, providing voice talent as well as technical and graphic design assistance (see the full list of credits here).

The Productive Researcher was created in collaboration with the Writing Program to provide 24X7 access to instructional content previously delivered through classroom presentations, primarily for Writing 105 classes.

For more information about the Productive Researcher, contact Lisa Moeckel at 443-9790 or lemoecke@syr.edu

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on July 28, 2010 | Permalink

Early in July, the Library began to de-accession journals in the Sci-Tech Library for which we purchased online equivalents earlier this year. You may see several staff members removing print journals from the Sci-Tech Library over the course of the summer.

This de-accessioning provides much needed room for the ongoing growth of the print monograph collections in Sci-Tech. In addition, the purchase of these backfiles means that online access to this historically valuable record of 20th century science is now available to SU students and researchers anywhere, anytime.

This project originated as the Library began addressing a space crunch and announced plans to relocate some materials offsite. As an alternative to offsite storage, the Library trialed several online backfiles of the most significant science journal packages and sought input from faculty and academic departments.

From March 1 - March 31, 2010, the Library arranged with 4 major science publishers for trial access to older runs (backfiles) of chemistry and physics journals. In total, over 300 journals from 7 different backfile packages were evaluated. Librarians were sensitive to concerns about the image quality, legibility, and accessibility of this content and only purchased those collections that received no negative feedback from any departments or faculty members.

For complete information about this project, please contact Scott Warren, Bibliographer for the Sciences and Technology, at (315) 443-8339, email sawarren@syr.edu, or visit the Sci-Tech De-accessioning Project webpage.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on July 16, 2010 | Permalink

Visitors to the Syracuse University web site now have the option of taking a virtual tour of campus. The SU virtual tour includes panoramic photos of a variety of campus locations, including 3 library locations. Click on the links below to view the photos (requires Quicktime).

Learning Commons, Bird Library first floor

Pages, the Library cafe

Carnegie Library reading room

Posted by Kathleen White on June 16, 2010 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library's newest exhibition, "4,000 Years and Counting," features treasures from the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) that highlight the breadth of the library's special collections--from second-century-B.C. cuneiform tablets to the papers of notable contemporary figures like Joyce Carol Oates.

The exhibition occupies the display case on the first floor of E.S. Bird Library and the gallery on the 6th floor, which is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. The exhibition will remain up until Aug. 31.

The exhibition opens with the origins of special collections at SU: the 1887 purchase of the eminent German historian Leopold von Ranke's library. In support of the acquisition, University Librarian C. W. Bennett made this assessment: "For this has always been my theory, that six thousand to ten thousand well-selected volumes are sufficient for the wants of the undergraduate, but to keep the professors from mental hunger and starvation, sources, authorities and books of a very different kind must be had in large numbers and in special collections."

Special collections was born of the Ranke library and matured in the 1960s under the leadership of Chancellor William Pearson Tolley (1901-96), a noted collector of rare books. Librarians solicited the personal papers of the best and brightest of the day, including pediatrician Benjamin Spock, architect Marcel Breuer, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer and Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset. The Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive, with its world-class collection of wax-cylinder recordings and state-of-the-art reformatting studio, was founded in 1963. These notable accomplishments gave rise to subject areas in which SU could claim to be among the best in the world, including architecture and design, popular culture, and the literary and artistic expression of radical ideology. This exhibition offers an introduction to these and other collecting areas.

SCRC continues to build upon historical strengths while new areas of collecting have emerged; for example, the history of broadcasting. Increasingly, special collections include not just print and manuscript items, but a growing number of material-culture artifacts--from clay tablets to Tupperware--and a variety of media formats, such as Edison wax cylinders. SCRC's mission is to collect and preserve the best of today for the researchers of tomorrow, and increasingly that means bits and bytes as well as paper and print.

For more information about special collections at Syracuse University Library, contact, Sean Quimby, director of special collections.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on May 13, 2010 | Permalink

Students in the VPA's fiber architecture class, co-taught by Janet Ambrose and Mary Giehl, have installed their final semester projects on the first floor and lower level of Bird Library's Learning Commons. The class draws students from design, architecture, sculpture, fiber arts, and other majors.

Students used the two Learning Commons spaces as their inspiration and planned their work to fit and work in these spaces. Fiber sculptures are wrapped around columns, suspended from the ceiling, and situated in some unexpected locations. By displaying in the Library, student artwork will be seen by hundreds of people. In addition, installing in a public setting like Bird provided students with the real-life experience of working in an environment where there is less control and predictability than in a critique space or gallery.

This exhibit is a result of the ongoing partnership between the Learning Commons and COLAB, which has previously installed exhibits in the lower level of Bird Library. The first phase of installations was completed in late March and additional works will be added. They will remain in place through the end of the semester.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on April 5, 2010 | Permalink

Access Services currently presents Notable Native Americans, a display featuring materials related to prominent American Indians from the past five centuries. Located on the 4th floor of Bird Library, the display contains brief biographical sketches and illustrations of key figures such as Pocahontas, Sequoyah, Sitting Bull, Jim Thorpe, Maria Tallchief, Joanne Shenandoah and many others.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on March 29, 2010 | Permalink

Information from two recent "What is a Library?" forums is now available at http://tiny.cc/xp8tb. The page includes notes from both sessions, questions and answers, and a number of related articles.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on March 5, 2010 | Permalink

Librarians Bonnie Ryan and John Olson have compiled a resource guide related to the recent earthquake in Haiti. The guide provides resources on Haiti, the January 12th earthquake and its aftermath, as well as information on how to help and the SU campus response. John compiled the Haiti Maps and Atlases page, which includes links to information from ReliefWeb, World Health Organization, WikiProject - Haiti, the Army Geospatial Center, Google Earth and Geologic Earthquake maps from the US Geological Survey.

Bonnie is working in collaboration with faculty members Paula Johnson, Law; Arthur Paris and Cecilia Green, Sociology; and Linda Carty, African American Studies, to coordinate dissemination of information about the disaster.

The SU resource guide is based on a similar one created by UMass Amherst's W.E.B. DuBois Library, located http://guides.library.umass.edu/haiti.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on January 25, 2010 | Permalink

Syracuse University Library's spring 2010 exhibition is entitled Covering Photography: Imitation, Influence and Coincidence, by guest curator Karl Baden. Baden, a class of 1974 Syracuse University alumnus, is a Boston-based photographer and member of Boston College's Fine Arts Department. He will present a gallery talk on Tuesday, March 2nd at 5:00 p.m. in the 6th floor gallery.

In 2005, Baden founded the Web-based archive Covering Photography (www.CoveringPhotography.com), based on his own book collection. The exhibition previously appeared at the Boston Public Library in fall 2009. In his introduction to the online version of that exhibition, Baden writes, "Creative individuals from every discipline have regularly appropriated the ideas of others, at least as a foundation to build on. . . .This exhibition compares the cover art of selected books with the photographs from which they are, or may be, derived. The books were chosen not because of their content, but because the images on their jackets reference, in some way, another image . . . a photograph whose significance or popularity has earned it, or its maker, a place in the history of photography."

Among the pairings in the exhibit are the Italian edition of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk, which uses Walker Evans's "Atlanta, Georgia, 1936" as the source for its cover artwork, and the cover image of The Mammoth Book of Erotica, which calls to mind "Nude, 1919," part of Alfred Stieglitz's collective portrait of his wife, the painter Georgia O'Keeffe.

According to Baden, "The connection between book cover and photograph may be obvious--an instance of imitation or even blatant appropriation. In other cases, it is more a question of the designer or illustrator being subtly, perhaps even unconsciously, influenced by a particular photographer or photograph. Finally, there may be no direct, or even indirect, trail of influence; the idea or visual trope may just be part of our collective cultural consciousness."

The exhibition is free and open to the public and runs from January 19 to April 30, 2010 in the Special Collections Research Center gallery on the sixth floor of Bird Library. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except holidays. The exhibit is also featured in the exhibit case on the first floor of Bird Library.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on January 19, 2010 | Permalink

The detailed notes taken during the December 9th What is a Library forum are now available:What is a library forum notes.pdf.

The date of a followup session to be held early in the spring semester will be announced soon.

Also available is the Text of petition.pdf submitted to Dean Thorin by Concerned members of the student body.

For more information, please contact Charlotte Hess at 315 443-5528 or hess@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on December 17, 2009 | Permalink

In the spring semester, Syracuse University Library will unveil a dynamic new research and scholarly communication tool for faculty and SU researchers. SURFACE, or Syracuse University Research Facility and Collaborative Environment, is an online database that provides open access to the extensive and diverse array of scholarly output produced at SU. SURFACE will gather, organize, disseminate, and preserve the cultural and scholarly record of the University and is designed to increase the accessibility and visibility of individual author's works, maximize research impact, facilitate interdisciplinary research, and provide access to local, regional, and global communities. Making the richness of SU knowledge available to the world through free and open access is the very essence of fulfilling the mission of education as a public good.

The Library is currently in the process of identifying University colleges, schools, departments, and university centers that have articles, working paper series, conference papers and proceedings, grant reports, technical reports, documents on collaborative projects, exhibitions, concerts, recitals, and other high-quality materials that document SU cultural and scientific scholarship. The library will also provide assistance in the curation of these materials. To participate or for more information, please contact Charlotte Hess, Associate Dean for Research, Collections, & Scholarly Communication, at (315) 443-5528 or hess@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on December 17, 2009 | Permalink

The Library now offers a series of three-minute video tutorials that provide an overview of some commonly used research tools. Developed by Learning Commons Librarian Pam Thomas, the series includes:

• The Library Website (2:48)


• The Discover Search Tool (3:01)


• Find a Database (3:02)


• Finding Full Text Articles (2:19)


• Using SULinks


• Metalib: Using QuickSets (3:12)


• Metalib: Search Multiple Databases (2:55)

For more information, see the Three Minute Video Tutorials subject guide.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on December 1, 2009 | Permalink

In a new partnership with Syracuse University Press, the Library now offers a collection of digital versions of recent SU Press books. Incorporated with the Library's other digital collections, the SU Press Collection now includes 54 titles, with plans to add 40 more books in the coming year.

Among the important goals of this project are to enable SU faculty and students to use SU Press scholarship in their teaching and research and to promote the Press on campus. The project has also provided the Press with experience in distributing its content online. These books are accessible from on-campus locations and through VPN, however they cannot be printed or downloaded.

Titles include Besa, Muslims who saved the Jews in WWII by Norman H. Gershman; The Virgin of Solitude: a novel by Taghi Modarressi; and 41 Shots--and counting: what Amadou Diallo's story teaches us about policing, race, and justice by Beth Roy.

To view the full list of titles available, visit http://digilib.syr.edu/

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 23, 2009 | Permalink

Nowadays, students from China feel right at home in Bird Library. That's because the Library has partnered with SU's Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) to build a collection of books in Mandarin Chinese.

CSSA members asked the Library to help make Mandarin-language books available. Doing so required identifying Mandarin-speaking Library staff and assigning them to the project, as well as programming the Library's computers to be able to search in Chinese characters. While most of the titles are academic and scholarly texts, the collection also includes leisure reading and reference materials such as dictionaries, writing guides, and preparation books for standardized tests. This collection is used by students and faculty from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.

CSSA collects and delivers donated books, while the Library catalogs and maintains the collection. CSSA President Ronghong Lin says "Our goal is to collect 500 books each year. This is a great opportunity to have our language represented in the Syracuse University Library." CSSA member Hui Zhao (in photo) agreed: "Having these materials available to us is so important. Being able to read in Chinese allows us to be transported back home without leaving Syracuse University."

The CSSA built the collection by purchasing books with money raised from their annual fundraiser and by collecting donated books from families and friends. They send a wish list to incoming freshman from China each year, asking students to bring one book from the list with them to donate to the Library when they come to campus in the fall. Books are also donated by authors and academics in China who want to have their work included in the collection of Syracuse University Library.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 17, 2009 | Permalink

Nancy Turner is not your typical librarian. One day she's roaming the floors of Bird Library jotting down notes about how students are interacting with one another while they study. The next day she's sitting with a student on the first floor of the Library while they draw their ideal library with markers and crayons. Some may wonder what she's up to, unaware that she's conducting serious research as a part of her anthropological study of library users.

Nancy is head of user research and assessment at the Library, charged with finding out what library users need and how effective the Library is at meeting those needs. Equipped with her degrees in anthropology, social science, and library and information science, Nancy uses a 'toolbox of methods' to make her discoveries. She conducts personal interviews, structured surveys, and usability testing with Syracuse University students and faculty to better understand how they are using the Library and what improvements they need to help them succeed academically. "I believe talking with patrons directly is the best way to gain honest insight into how they view the Library," Nancy says.

Nancy also conducts quantitative research to determine the Library's impact across campus. In one fifteen-minute block of time, Nancy discovered that students from 24 departments at seven schools and colleges came in to use Library resources and services. She collects information like this in a systematic way to help uncover ways the Library can change as new technologies emerge and students' research needs change over time.

She often takes her findings to library administration, where the students' concerns are addressed and their requests considered. Dean of Libraries and University Librarian Suzanne Thorin believes Nancy's work demonstrates the Library's commitment to supporting the entire campus community. "Nancy's position exemplifies Scholarship in Action. She's putting students' needs first to ensure that we're doing all we can to help them succeed."

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 17, 2009 | Permalink

To ease a serious space shortage, the Library was exploring the option of sending less used material to a commercial offsite shelving facility. Based on recent feedback received from faculty and students, the Library has put those plans on hold and is now exploring alternatives to sending materials offsite.

Possibilities under consideration to ease the space crunch include the relocation of some collections within the library, the installation of additional shelving in some areas on the upper floors of Bird Library, and the purchase of additional online journal backsets.

The Library will share new details as they become available.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 17, 2009 | Permalink

Learning Commons Librarian Pam Thomas has developed a series of video tutorials to introduce commonly used research tools and techniques. The videos are available as a subject guide and also on the Learning Commons' YouTube channel.

Contact Pam for more information on this project.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 9, 2009 | Permalink

An exhibition entitled "Luminous Construction: The Photography of Howard Bond"will run through January 14, 2010 in the gallery on the 6th floor of Bird Library. Howard Bond is a renowned American photographer and former student of Ansel Adams.

Since committing himself fully to photography in 1979, Bond has been regarded as a master of large-format film photography. His signature black and photography has been featured in more than 60 single-artist and 40 group shows all over the world. He is the author of two books, Light Motifs (1984) and White Motif: The Cyclades Islands of Greece (1991), both published by Goodrich Press, and more than a hundred articles for Photo Techniques magazine. In addition to Adams, Bond studied fine art photography with 20th-century masters Imogen Cunningham and Brett Weston. The Michigan-based artist has taught workshops on photographic techniques for more than three decades.

Recently, Bond's photography was the subject of a generous donation to SU by Carl J. Armani '60 and his wife, Marcy. The gift, which includes a set of 22 portfolios of dramatic landscapes and abstract close-ups taken between 1974 and 2005, is the subject of the aforementioned exhibition in Bird Library. Curator Kelli Pennington '10, an M.F.A. student in art photography, says Bond's aesthetic echoes that of his mentors. "I see in Bond's work a finely trained gaze, an ability to render the details and spaces that make up our world," she says.

A catalog of the exhibition is available in the SU Bookstore and from Amazon.com.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 5, 2009 | Permalink

This fall, Syracuse University Library welcomed new Learning Commons Resident Librarians Tina Chan and Fantasia Thorne.

The Learning Commons Resident Librarian Program is new to the Library and provides experiential learning opportunities for new librarians interested in working with undergraduate students. Each Resident Librarian is appointed to a term of either two or three years. During this time, they are able to explore career opportunities under the guidance of experienced librarians. In return, they provide the Learning Commons with a steady infusion of the latest scholarship, research, and practices regarding undergraduate services.

Resident Librarians are within two years of receiving their master's degree in library/ information science. To increase the diversity of the Learning Commons staff, the program also requires that individuals be members of underrepresented populations.

These new positions fill a need within the Library and also provide an example of best practices in the profession. Learning Commons Director Lesley Pease particularly appreciates the mentorship aspect of the program: "So many times, new graduates begin their first professional assignment without the support and guidance of library professionals. This program creates a support structure that allows residents to explore the profession while fulfilling an important role as Syracuse University Librarians."

Tina and Fantasia both graduated from Simmons College with Masters in Library Information Science (MLIS) degrees. As Resident Librarians, they provide core services, such as reference and student outreach, while contributing to other Learning Commons initiatives. They will also conduct research on undergraduate student learning and communication behaviors.

Both Tina and Fantasia are excited by the prospects of their new positions at Syracuse University Library. They share a passion for helping people and are looking forward to interacting with students.

As an undergraduate student, Tina spent a lot of time in the library and routinely asked librarians for help finding resources. "Not only did they help me in my research, they inspired me to become a librarian. After learning about my interests, they encouraged me to pursue an advanced degree. They are the reason I'm here at S.U." She looks forward to having a similar impact on student's life and work. She is particularly excited about the Learning Commons practice of "roving research" where librarians seek out students who may need help. She believes this is the best way to help students because it meets them where they are, both physically and literally.

Fantasia hopes her experience in technology will contribute to, improved communication with students. As a Resident Librarian, she will teach classes on conducting research to Writing 205 students. Fantasia enjoys teaching and looks forward to her role as a mentor. She was drawn to SUL's residency program because it specifically sought out members of underrepresented populations to enable the Learning Commons to reflect the diverse student body it serves. She believes encouraging diversity in the field is important and applauds the Library for this aspect of the residency program.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on November 5, 2009 | Permalink

In recognition of the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, a display featuring images of Lincoln gathered chiefly from SU Library materials is presently on view on the 4th floor of Bird Library. This display briefly examines some of the more familiar and affecting images of Lincoln created by painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers during the past two centuries, including works by Mathew Brady, James Earle Fraser, Gutzon Borglum, and Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin on October 27, 2009 | Permalink