Milne Librarians Publish

Two Milne librarians have recently had articles published.

Tim Bowersox, Milne’s new Information Delivery Services (IDS) librarian, was published in the Winter 2009 issue of The Oracle Newsletter, a quarterly publication from Atlas Systems, Inc. His article, “The Information Delivery Services Project: A New Model for ILL,” reviews the IDS Project and the resource sharing model it has developed. (The IDS Project began at Milne Library several years ago and has since been joined by nearly 40 academic libraries in New York state and beyond. In January of this year, New York Public Library became the first public library to join.)

The article describes several aspects of the project, including a Workflow Toolkit and mentor program, which help member libraries improve the efficiency of their interlibrary loan operations, and a statistics package that measures project-wide performance.


Reference and Instruction Librarian Justina Elmore authored “In the Know With Web 2.0,” an overview of Web-based applications which allow people to create, collaborate and otherwise interact with online content. Published as a feature article in the November 2008 issue of The Rochester Engineer, the article discusses wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, social networking, microblogging, and collaborative project applications such as Google Docs and Zoho.

As a result of the publication, Justina was invited to make a presentation last December to the Worldwide Technical Communication & Localization team at Carestream Health, Inc., and another in April at the 2009 Spectrum Conference.

Post written by Liz Argentieri

Great Day Proposals Due March 6, 2009.

The deadline to submit your Great Day proposal is just two weeks away. Don't forget to submit your proposal by March 6, 2009!

FAQ’s about GREAT Day
Q. I am a first year student; can I submit a proposal for GREAT Day?
A. Any student from any class may submit a proposal. However, every submission must have a faculty sponsor.

Q. Does a submission have to be research based?
A. No. A submission can be research based, but it could also be a piece of artwork created in a class; a musical, theatrical or dance performance; a reading of a creative reading work, including poetry, prose, and fiction.

Q. Do I have to wait for a member of the faculty to approach me about making a submission?
A. No. If you believe that you have an appropriate submission, contact a faculty member as soon as possible.

Q. How long do I have to submit a proposal?
A. The deadline is Friday, March 6 at 5:00pm.

Q. Do I have to have all of my work completed before making a submission?
A. No. GREAT Day is April 21. (Posters must be submitted for printing by April 10.)

Q. It’s kind of late, should I still make a submission?
A. ABSOLUTELY. Go to: great.geneseo.edu

Looking for free audiobooks?

Many busy Geneseo students may not have time to sit down and read a book, but are still interested in a good "read." That's where audiobooks and podcasts can help!

In addition to purchasing audiobooks from sites like Audible, Amazon, and The Audio Bookstore, you can download free audiobooks from many difererent sources. A few of these include:

1. The Wadsworth Library , and The Monroe County Library System both offer OverDrive, a service for downloading popular digital audiobooks using your library card.
2. LibriVox, is a website that provides free audiobooks from the public domain.
3. Openculture provides free MP3 downloads of great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
4. Free Classic Audiobooks Downloads are available in mp3 and in m4b audio book format for iTunes and the iPod.
5. free-books.org
6. ITunes search for "podiobooks" (provides downloads to audiobooks available at podiobooks.com).
7. Fictionwise.com has audio and ebooks, some of which are free.
8. Mobipocket.com has audio and ebooks, some of which are free.
   

If you've found other sources that you'd like to share, please do so using our "Post a Comment" option below!

Post written by Michelle Costello and Justina Elmore

Welcome to Milne Library's newest arrivals!

In recent years, the staff at Milne Library has been blessed with little bundles of joy. Our newest arrivals were delivered in the past month and a half.



Tom and Hillary Ottaviano were thrilled to welcome their second child - this time a boy - in January. Ian Joseph was born Tuesday, January 6 at 8:36 pm at Nicholas Noyes Hospital in Dansville, weighing in at 7 lbs, 6 oz and measuring 21 inches long.










Bonnie Swoger and her husband, Dean, are currently getting used to life with their precious baby girl, Katherine Jane Muller Swoger. Kate arrived on February 9 at 8:43 pm in Buffalo, weighing 8 lbs. 6 oz.




Congratulations to both happy families!

Trial eBook collection available from Milne Library

Milne Library is pleased to announce a free 90-day trial to Springer's eBook Collection.
Springer is one of the foremost publishers of scientific content, and their eBook Collection includes the electronic versions of over 30,000 monographs, textbooks, atlases, handbooks, reference works and book series in the science disciplines. With access to over thirteen different subject collections, ranging from Architecture & Design to Physics & Astronomy, students and faculty will have access to high quality scientific content.
Benefits include:

• Instantaneous and convenient access to book content wherever and whenever needed
• Faster searching, efficient browsing and easy to find content
• Book chapter searchable
• Supplemental resources including dictionaries and thesauri

The trial began on February 2nd and will continue through April 30th, 2009. For more information about the Springer eBook Collection or for questions about purchasing eBooks for the library collection, please contact Kate Pitcher at pitcher@geneseo.edu.

CREDO: Milne's newest research tool

Credo Reference is a full-text online database containing 390 reference works including encyclopedias, handbooks, and dictionaries. Use Credo to find answers to specific questions, to learn more about a subject, or to help select a research topic.

Credo is available from the library’s homepage by clicking on the Resources tab in the QuickSearch and then typing Credo. Credo is also found on “How Do I ….Begin my research” and on several of the library’s subject resource pages (e.g. Reference, Quotations, and New Resources).

Credo provides direct links to GLOCAT and to several research databases making it simple to replicate your search. Books and articles cited in Credo are easily accessed by using the familiar button.

Post written by Rich Dreifuss

“How Do I….” section added to the library’s homepage

A new “How Do I….” section has been added to the library’s homepage to help students find what they need. The “How Do I….” entries will easily link users to appropriate library web pages and provide them with topical explanations, examples, and additional web resources.

Some “How Do I ….” examples include Find a movie, Find primary sources, Begin my research, and Distinguish scholarly vs. popular sources. Pending positive user feedback, reference librarians plan to add more of these guides to assist library users with their research.

If you would like to suggest a "How Do I..." guide topic, leave us a message on the Library's Make a Suggestion page or stop by the reference desk and let us know!

Post written by Rich Dreifuss

Presidential words: Beyond definition...

Inaugurals is a site which takes the texts from each of the Inaugural addresses and analyzes the differences between past U.S. presidential inaugural speeches. Each address is compared to:
1. the five addresses nearest to it in time
2. the ten nearest addresses
3. all addresses in U.S. history

Created by Jonathan Feinberg (of Wordle fame), from IBM's Collaborative User Experience (CUE) Research group, this study of Presidential texts is an experiment in statistical analysis, which "which gives weight to words in a text according to how their frequency of use in the specimen text differs from the norm."

Check it out!

Governor's visit to be rescheduled

Governor David A. Paterson was to visit the College today, Thursday, February 12, 2009 to conduct a town hall meeting in the Ballroom. Unfortunately, the Governor has asked to re-schedule his visit.

According to Becky Glass, Executive Assistant to President Dahl, the Governor's assistant was apologetic and said, "I had a very nice conversation yesterday with Danielle, SUNY Geneseo's Student Association President, who seemed like an ideal candidate to moderate the conversation and she and I both were looking forward to the event."

Though no new date has been determined, The President's office has been assured that this is a "re-schedule," rather than a cancellation.

Celebrating Black History Month in Milne's Gallery

Milne Library's Gallery is fortunate to be showing the work of local Rochester artist Denise Logan throughout the month of February, in honor of Black History Month. Don't be fooled! They may look like photographs, but they are not.

The Art of Jazz is a collection of original illustrations of several blues and jazz musicians including greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday as well as Wynton Marsalis and David "Fathead" Newman (who passed away on January 20, 2009).

The works are created using both pen and ink, a Wacom tablet, and a Mac. Previously featured in the Democrat and Chronicle's "Artist Spotlight", Ms. Logan has been a graphic designer most of her professional life and finds this kind of illustration to be a natural progression in her work. She hopes to begin expanding into more abstract subjects in the future. You can learn more about Denise and her work on her website.

Jazz is a uniquely American musical art form with its origins deeply rooted in African as well as European traditions. Its influence is heard in most modern popular music, especially funk and hip-hop. If you've never given it a try, there are a variety of jazz CD's available for you to sample on the upper floor of Milne Library, right at the top of the main stairway.

You can begin by browsing the CD's, or go with a compilation CD like Smithsonian collection of classic jazz. Not sure how to find the Jazz titles without browsing through the entire collection? Try using GLOCat's Advanced Search to narrow your choices. Search "Jazz" as a subject keyword and limit the document type to "compact disc" as illustrated in the image below (click on it to see it enlarged).

Regardless of whether you stop in to view the finely detailed images, grab a listen to several Jazz recordings, or a little of both, we are sure there is something for everyone's taste and hope to see you here!