Milne Library News

Friday, February 26, 2010

GOLD Ruby Workshops this week...

Three GOLD workshops (Ruby Certificate) will be held this week in Milne, beginning with Microsoft Access 2007 Level I: Design, Create, and Use Tables on Monday (3/1) from 2-3 p.m. in South Hall 328. Steve Dresbach, Technology Instructor, will focus on the design and creation of tables used to store a collection of related information in a rectangular arrangement of rows and columns.

On Tuesday (3/2), Librarian Sue Ann Brainard, is offering Reading Between the Lines: Detecting Bias in the Media, an introduction to becoming media literate, i.e. knowing how to evaluate and analyze mainstream and alternative media for objectivity, accuracy, and authority. This workshop, (previously called Media Literacy) will show how to identify bias by looking closely at the language used by news media. The workshop will be held in Milne 208 from 2-3 p.m.

Citing Sources in the Sciences will round out the week, on Wednesday (3/3) with Bonnie Swoger, Sciences and Technology Librarian. Participants will review the citation styles commonly used for papers in science classes at Geneseo: APA (American Psychological Association), CSE (Council of Science Editors), NLM (National Library of Medicine), and ACS (American Chemical Society). Styles covered will depend on workshop participants' needs. After an overview, the focus will go to citing online journal articles, books and websites. Participants will learn about online resources for future help, and gain practice in the citation style of their choice.

Go to http://gold.geneseo.edu/register/index.html to register today!

Photo courtesy of http://www.margolove.com/ via Flickr Creative Commons.

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Learning about Mobile Library Services

Several Milne Librarians interested in using mobile technology for the Library took part in this year's Handheld Librarian II Online Conference February 17th and 18th.

Topics ranged from trends and "social reference" (and how libraries fit into it) to "iPhone/Mobile Applications for Digital Library" to building a mobile site to mobile tagging, including QR codes and were included in topic tracks for Mobile Reference Service, E-readers, Mobile Apps, Marketing, Websites, and Content for Library Mobile Sites.

You can see what some other schools and organizations are doing with their mobile sites, including Duke University, Northwestern University, International Children's Digital Library (ICDL), and London's National Gallery.

Currently Milne offers very basic access through our Milne Library Mobile page. Have you used the mobile page? What was your experience like? If Milne were to offer extended mobile services, would you use them? If so, what would be the kinds of information and services you'd like to have access to through your cell phone? Tell us in the comments!

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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Great Day Proposals Due March 5, 2010.

The deadline to submit your Great Day proposal is only ten days away. Don't forget to submit your proposal by Friday, March 5!

Some things to keep in mind about your proposals:

  • Every submission must have a faculty sponsor. So if you haven't already, contact a faculty member as soon as possible!
  • A submission can be research based, a piece of artwork created in a class; a musical, theatrical or dance performance; or a reading of a creative work, including poetry, prose, or fiction.
  • You do not need to have all of your work/project completed to submit a proposal. Posters must be submitted for printing by April 9, 2010. GREAT Day will be held on April 20, 2010.

For more information on GREAT Day deadlines, submission guidelines and presentation instructions, go to great.geneseo.edu.


Monday, February 22, 2010

Ruby Certificate GOLD Workshops 2/22-2/26

Two GOLD workshops (Ruby Certificate) will be held this week in Milne, starting with Finding Articles Efficiently on Tuesday (2/23) from 2-3 p.m. in Milne 104. Librarian Michelle Costello will help students learn the basic mechanics of a database, which could include web engines like Google, the databases subscribed to by the Library, or a free database on the web. Students will discover helpful tips and strategies that are used in any kind of database to help improve their searches, find better resources, and save time.

On Wednesday (2/24), Librarian Tracy Paradis is offering From Page to Press to Peer Review, a workshop designed to help students understand that all information is not created equal. During the publishing cycle, scholarly information goes through intense scrutiny. Understanding the ins and outs of scholarly publishing allows the researcher to select appropriate material for university-level work. Students will learn what constitutes scholarliness, what is meant by "peer reviewed/refereed" and how to find scholarly sources. The workshop will be held in Milne 104 from 2-3 p.m.

Go to http://gold.geneseo.edu/register/index.html to register today!

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Celebrating Tom Greenfield's New Encyclopedia

In case you were unable to attend the event on Thursday, February 18th, Milne Library hosted a reception to celebrate the publication of Dr. Tom Greenfield’s newly-published work, Broadway: An Encyclopedia of Theater and American Culture. Published in December 2009 by ABC-CLIO, Inc., the two-volume set features contributions from several Geneseo faculty.


The crowd of nearly 50 attendees was comprised of students, faculty from several departments, President Dahl and Provost Long. Milne's Director, Ed Rivenburgh, opened with the promise of this being the first of many future events focusing on and promoting faculty scholarship. He also mentioned the new digital projects being worked on, and that Associate Director Cyril Oberlander and Special Collections Librarian Liz Argentieri were at that very moment attending a Thoreau conference gathering ideas about digitizing SUNY Geneseo's Walter Harding's collection.

Sue Ann Brainard, Instruction Librarian and author of five entries to the encyclopedia then introduced Dr. Greenfield, who graciously and humorously thanked every one who worked on the project. He pointedly thanked Ms. Brainard and another librarian from the Performing Arts Library in New York City Public Library, for their enthusiasm, saying that, "whenever I asked either one of them a research question, they would get back to him with 6 more sources than I needed, and they kept working on a question even after I was done with it."

In his appreciation, he relayed how "he was the envy of all his academic friends from other institutions, who were amazed that the library was doing this." The reception was completed with the cutting of the cake, conversation and many congratulations.

The books are currently available for in-Library use and located in the Author's Hall upstairs in Milne. Stop by the Reference desk and we'll help you find it.

Congratulations, Tom and all the contributors!

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