Library & Archives

Access to History

January 21, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

Today we commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and what better way to do so than to take a look at some of the words and photos that tell his story. The King Library and Archives in Atlanta has a fascinating digital collection of Dr. King’s writings, as well as photographs and documents associated with him. As stated on the Digital Collection homepage, “There are nearly a million documents associated with the life of Martin Luther King Jr.” so what’s online is just a snippet, albeit a fascinating one.

Being able to access a fascinating primary sources online is a result of the hard work of diligent archivists, librarians, interns and technicians who not only preserve historical documents but ensure that they are accessible to the public. Our own St. Mary’s Archives include several digital collections like the Historic Campus Photographs Collection and the St. Mary’s Student Newspaper Archive. The library also provides access to historical documents and primary source materials through online databases like Everyday Life and Women in America, the Picture Post Historical Archive, Victorian Popular Culture, and Historic Documents Online.

So the next time you feel like accessing a piece of history, why not at a library?

Reading is . . .

January 14, 2013 by Amanda VerMeulen

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project asked questions about people’s reading habits and about where they live. Any guesses about what they found out? Do city mice read more than country mice? Do lots of people have library cards and still think libraries are important? Why do people say they read?

Well, 78% of Americans over the age of 16 say they read a book in the last year, and 79% of those asked said they read for pleasure. That’s 80% of the urbanites who responded and 71% of the rural residents. Americans read, on average, 17 books last year. That’s more than one a month. Pretty good numbers. About 58% of everyone surveyed has a library card and 69% say the library is important to them.

At SMCM 100% of the community has a library card (!). How many of you would say the library is important to you? How many of you read a book last year not for class or research, but for fun, to learn something, or to keep up with the news? Do you read a newspaper? Do you read?

Here a few more of those interesting numbers. 19% of those asked own an e-reader, and 93% of those asked read a print book in the past year (22% read an ebook and 14% read in both formats). And the study showed that age, education, and household income may determine your reading habits, not where you live.

So – what does it all mean? Maybe it means that formats matter, that libraries need to be sure we can offer opportunities to read in print, online, and using e-readers (and audio devices). Maybe it also means that we should be thrilled that people are reading, and they get why public libraries are so important. You may not know this but many librarians are feeling pretty insecure these days. Warnings of our impending obsolescence are everywhere and have been around for a long time [“The Obsolete Man,” Twilight Zone, June 2, 1961].

I think books, libraries, and librarians probably don’t have to worry too much about being unloved or obsolete any time soon. We want people to read, not because it keeps us employed. Because reading can help you find out how something works, or why we do the things we do, where we came from, where we might be going, or just let you escape from it all for a while.

How do you read? What do you read? Why do you read?

Baby, It’s Cold in Here . . . or is that Hot??

December 11, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

Some of you may remember last Monday, December 3. You know, the day it was about 90 degrees in the library? It was HOT. And everyone was complaining. One of the college HVAC mechanics came over, tinkered around a bit, and we finally got the temperatures down.

Fast forward to Friday, December 7. Yes, a mere four days later. You, the day it was about 65 degrees in the library?? It was COLD. And everyone was complaining. One of the college HVAC mechanics came over, tinkered around a bit, and . . . NOTHING MUCH HAPPENED.

We don’t know exactly what happened. The library is actually two buildings connected with the bridge. There are lots of thermostats. There are lots of heating registers and air vents in the ceilings. It all seems pretty complicated.

What we do know is that people were pretty uncomfortable, and frustrated, and mad. And I apologize for that. Our staff were cold, librarians were cold, and students trying to work were cold. Today everything seems better. I hope it stays that way this week, and we’ll try to start the new year with steady temperatures that don’t required fingerless gloves and a parka (or a tank top and shorts).

Happy end of the semester. Happy holidays, sleeping in, and time with family. We’ll see you next semester.

What Do You Want to Know?

November 26, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

Hmmm . . . a blog post for the end of the semester. What shall it be? Librarian’s words of wisdom? “Don’t start your paper the night before it’s due.” [see under: Colbert] “We probably can’t get that article for you by tomorrow.” “SAVE your work!”

Other advice to get you through the next few weeks? “Be sure to get enough sleep.”
“Don’t take NoDoz.” [yes – they still make that]

I think I will pass along a question that one of my library school professors asked at the end of each final exam in his classes . “What do you want to learn next?” David Carr would ask. Not “show me how much you learned in the past 15 weeks.” Not “what classes do you need to complete your requirements”. He asked, “What do you want to know?”

So while you are gearing up for those final papers and exams, take some time to think not just about where you have been but where you are going. How has what you have learned in a class this semester changed you? How have the people you have met, or the lectures, concerts or athletic events you have attended changed you? What new questions do you have? What do you want to know?
And where will you look for answers? Maybe in a classroom, perhaps in the library, or could be sitting outside watching a sunset with friends.
Just remember that the real reason to review, reread, and rewrite is not just to focus on the last 15 weeks, but also to think about the next 15 and the 15 after that.

What do you want to know?

New Database Trial: Anthropology Plus

November 12, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

The library will be providing access to the Anthropology Plus online database from now until Dec. 15, 2012 as part of our standard “Try before you buy” online resource vetting process. This resource is a compilation of information found in the Anthropological Index Online and Anthropological Literature, with the EBSCOhost interface we’re all so used to seeing.

Access Anthropology Plus online (while on campus).
For off-campus access, contact one of the librarians for a username and password.

The library relies heavily on input from faculty and students for our electronic resource purchasing decisions, so if you have a few minutes, please take a look at Anthropology Plus and leave your feedback online in our very short user survey.

You can learn more about Anthropology Plus on the EBSCOhost website.

Beyond Googling on the Job

November 5, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

Information Seeking Behavior from overlobe on Flickr

We’re big fans of Project Information Literacy here at the SMCM Library. For those of you not familiar with PIL, it’s a nonprofit research organization led by Dr. Alison Head that seeks to understand the research habits of college students and recent college graduates. From the PIL website:

Our goal is to understand how early adults conceptualize and operationalize research activities for course work and “everyday life” use and especially how they resolve issues of credibility, authority, relevance, and currency in the digital age.

A few weeks ago PIL released a new report: How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace. It’s a part of a series they’re calling The Passage Studies, which examines the research behaviors of young adults at major transitional moments in their lives. In this new study, PIL researchers investigated employers’ expectations for new hires’ abilities to solve information problems and new hires’ information seeking practices and accompanying challenges on the job.

The big take-aways from this report:

We aren’t doing our students any favors by giving them highly structured research assignments.
Although I think we’d all agree that students in lower level courses need the kind of practice that structured research-based assignments provide, at the upper-level students do need to practice some higher-order thinking skills. Telling senior students to include a set number of certain kinds of sources in a specific length of a research paper doesn’t prepare them for the the kind of open-ended, problem-based research they will be doing in their future jobs. Recent grads routinely mentioned that on the job, research tasks were assigned with little structure or direction but with a much tighter deadline.
Recent college grads experienced difficulty synthesizing information.
One interesting finding from this report was that new hires with master’s degrees were, in the eyes of their employers, better able to solve work-related information problems because they took a “deep learning approach” which included “researching and understanding patterns, relationships, and implications of a particular issue or topic.” Employers did discuss that often new hires wanted to find an answer as quickly as possible, instead of taking the time to explore different research avenues and make connections between the information they found.
Research is social, but recent grads are often used to forging ahead alone.
Employers were surprised at new hires’ attitude of “computer as workspace,” their reluctance to engage in team-based research, and their inability to do simple “old-fashioned” research tasks like picking up the phone to call someone for information. Recent grads also discussed having to learn to rely on coworkers or supervisors as research resources when they were so used to starting at a computer to fill an information need.

This report is a fascinating read. It’s definitely worth taking a few minutes go over it on your lunch hour.

Happy reading!

Welcome to the Post-Literate Future

October 23, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

Reading and writing are doomed.

Literacy as we know it is over.

Welcome to the post-literate future.

No – it’s not April 1st. Beyond Literacy: Exploring a Post-Literate Future is the name of a new freely accessible e-book published by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Ontario Library Association. The site provides opportunities for readers to comment and contribute to what will undoubtedly be a vigorous and passionate conversation about whether reading and writing as we know them are really disappearing. What will replace them? What is already replacing them?

Do you read? Do you write? Is texting writing (by the way-the WordPress spell checker thinks texting is a spelling error). If we no longer use reading and writing as the most common way we communicate, we do/will we use? Is spoken language a kind of literacy? Lots of questions.

I don’t have many answers. It is hard for me to conjure up the image of a world without reading and writing. I still send letters through the mail. I always read something before I turn out the light before going to sleep. And the author isn’t claiming to have all the answers either. But the questions are provocative and worth thinking about.

What do you think? Will traditional reading and writing eventually disappear? In what ways are reading and writing important to you (or not)? What will a post-literate society look like? Join the dialog.

Interview with Tiko Mason

October 22, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

I’m following up on my last post about the Haiku Cubes and the Japanese American Experience exhibit with an interview with Tiko Mason. The concept and the content of the exhibit was her idea I thought I’d let her explain it to you.

Pamela: Can you share with our readers where the idea for the library exhibit came from?
Tiko: This past summer I participated in the St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SMURF) program. I had intended to research the Japanese-American experience from the arrival of the issei (first generation Japanese to come to America) to the yonsei (my generation) using my family’s personal experience as text. Prior to the project I knew my great-grandfather Seizaburo’s name, that he had lived in Seattle, and that something bad had happened to him during the war. I had no idea that on my first visit to the National Archives and Records Administration I would happen upon a gigantic file, replete with over a hundred documents, handwritten letters, memorandums from the Department of Justice and the FBI, all topped with Seizaburo’s mug shot and fingerprints. My project morphed into a creative engagement with this file, supported by other historical research, that grappled with my personal questions of identity in relation to this not-so-distant family member from the not-so-distant past. The documents in this exhibit come from that research.

Pamela: Had you read When the Emperor was Divine before you started your project?
Tiko: I did read When the Emperor was Divine prior to beginning the project (at the suggestion of my excellent adviser Professor Beth Charlebois). I also re-read it 3 or 4 times during the course of the summer (while doing my research). Julie Otsuka’s language and description of these events sparked my own creativity. I came to see so much of my great-grandfather Seizaburo in the father from the story, and there are points where the narrative eerily describes my own family’s experience.

[Read more…]

Haiku Cubes

October 18, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

Haiku Cube

If you’ve been in the library you may have noticed these cubes around the building. The text on the cubes are haikus written by St. Mary’s students in response to this year’s FYE summer reading book, Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine. They serve as companion pieces to an exhibit co-curated by Tiko Mason on the Japanese-American experience during World War II.

You may view the exhibit on the 2^nd floor of the library in the exhibit case by the elevators. For off-campus viewing, check out the exhibit photos on our Facebook page. For more information about the topic see the “Japanese-American Internment 1942-1945″ Research Guide.

Find The Numbers You Need

October 11, 2012 by Amanda VerMeulen

What’s the average travel time to work in Florida?
How many people in Colorado are registered to vote?
What’s the average science score for public school 4th graders in Nevada?

A good statistical information question is like librarian catnip. We love ’em. We know that somewhere in the vast infoverse some organization is collecting the data you need and we will try our hardest to find it. We have our usual go-to sources in print and online (I <3 the Statistical Abstract), and now we have yet another great source of numbers: CQ Press’ State Stats.

In State Stats you can find data on questions related to agriculture, the economy, education, government, health, population, transportation, crime, employment, the environment, and social welfare. It’s an easy to use collection of statistical information from a wide variety of sources, perfect for students in any discipline who need to support their arguments with hard data.

Oh, and if you’re curious about the answers to the questions above, they are:

25.5 minutes
2,299,000 people
141 out of 300 (from the National Assessment of Educational Progress)