Library Collection

Black History Month: A Mini-Bib of Children’s Books

February 26, 2016 by Amanda VerMeulen

For our last Black History Month post, we’ve got a mini bibliography (what we’re calling a mini-bib) of children’s books in the SMCM Library collection. Grab one (or a stack) and take a break from those scholarly sources!

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, call number: PZ7.K2253 Sn

The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy, call number: PZ7.F667 Pat 1985

Aunt Martha and the Golden Coin by Anita Rodriguez, call number: PZ7.R6188 Au 1993

The Faithful Friend by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, call number: PZ8.1.S227 Fai 1995

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: a West African Tale retold by Verna Aardema, pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon, call number: PZ8.1.A213 Wh 1978

Research Spotlight: Octavia Butler

February 22, 2016 by Amanda VerMeulen

image by Nikolas Coukouma [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

For Black History Month, we’re shining our first ever Research Spotlight on Octavia E. Butler’s life and works. Learn more about Butler – the first science-fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation award (aka the Genius Grant) – through the reference works, books, and article databases highlighted below.

Learn about Octavia Butler’s life in Credo Reference

Looking for some background information on Butler? The Credo Reference database provides online access to a number of high quality reference encyclopedias and dictionaries with entries on Butler.

Using the entry in the Encyclopedia of African-American Writing found in Credo Reference, can you name the prestigious science-fiction writing awards Butler won during her lifetime?

Read Octavia Butler’s novels, find them with the St. Mary’s Catalog

Experience Butler’s award winning sci-fi novels, featuring African-American female protagonists, first hand by checking them out of the SMCM Library!

Contained in one volume, Parable of the Sower; Parable of the Talents; and Kindred, three of Butler’s most well known works are available for check out. The first two works, which make up the Parable series, are set in California in the 2020s and present a dystopian future where corporate greed and lack of environmental stewardship lead to political and social collapse. The stand alone novel Kindred follows a 20th-century African-American woman who travels back in time to 19th century Maryland, where she meets her ancestors.

Find this collection under call number PS 3552. U827 P37 1999 in the second floor Stacks.

Want more? Search the USMAI catalog to borrow other Butler books from other Maryland libraries!

Research the scholarly response to Octavia Butler’s works in MLA International Bibliography and Project Muse

Maybe now you’ve learned a little about Octavia Butler’s life, read a couple of her novels, and are interested in doing research in the literature for a paper or project. While you might start you research using OneSearch (or *cough*googlescholar*cough*), how about giving a more targeted subject specific database like MLA International Bibliography or Project Muse a try?

Produced by the Modern Language Association (of MLA citation style fame) the MLA International Bibliography contains over 1.8 MILLION citations for books, journals, dissertations and theses, dating back to 1926! A search for “Octavia Butler and Kindred” turned up 38 highly relevant results. As the name suggests, results the MLA International Bibliography are mainly citations, but you can access the full text – if available – in one of the library’s other databases, or through Interlibrary Loan.

Looking to get your hands on full-text sources right away? The Project Muse database has full-text sources from over 400 titles. A search for “Octavia Butler and Kindred” turned up 117 full-text articles from journals ranging from literary criticism to women’s studies!

Homepage image credit: Containment Zone by L.E. Spry (CC BY 2.0) via flic.kr/p/3d9TcK

Contemporary Black Artists in ARTstor

February 21, 2016 by Amanda VerMeulen

ARTstor is a library database containing nearly one-million high quality images. A perfect place to research art and architecture, ARTstor is also a great place to explore works by both well known and new artists.

Search by artist name, artwork title, and keyword or browse images by geographic location or type of art.

By creating an account, you can save images to specific folders and download images individual, in groups, or directly to PowerPoint presentations!

In honor of Black History Month, use ARTstore to explore more works by the four contemporary Black artists highlighted below.

Iona Rozeal Brown‘s painting combine Japanese and hi-hop iconography as a commentary on race and culture.

image: Off the Dome: don’t front, you know we got you open, by Iona Rozeal Brown; photo by Cliff via https://flic.kr/p/5vx9P8

Kehinde Wiley‘s larger than life portraits combine old and new by referencing or recreating Old Masters paintings with contemporary figures as a way to address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture.

image: Kehinde Wiley, A New Republic, Brooklyn Museum; photo by Garrett Ziegler via https://flic.kr/p/r2VqeD

Nick Cave is a sculptor, dancer, and performance artist most well know for his “Soundsuits” – wearable sculptures made of fabric and other materials.

image: Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2010; photo by Sharon Mollerus via https://flic.kr/p/ocTio6

Kara Walker is best known for her large scale silhouette installations through which she explores themes of race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity.

image: work by Kara Walker; photo by Phillip Merritt via https://flic.kr/p/4gVDka

Database Trial: oaFindr from 1science

November 4, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

Until November 30, SMCM Library has trial access to oaFindr from 1science.

oaFindr makes finding Open Access articles that are freely available on the internet a breeze. Instead of performing a number of different searches on different sites and different platforms, oaFindr offers one-click access to article PDFs from the search results.

And oaFindr is not just for the Sciences! Use it to find Open Access articles in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences as well.

If you like Google Scholar, you’ll love oaFindr!

Find oaFindr on the O tab on the SMCM Library Databases page.

World Statistics Day & Statista

October 20, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

The United Nations has declared October 20, 2015 World Statistics Day. Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring resources available from the SMCM Library related to statistics and data. For more info on World Statistics day, check out https://worldstatisticsday.org/index.html

eMarketer. (n.d.). Methods used for watching video content by U.S. college students in 2011. In Statista – The Statistics Portal. Retrieved October 19, 2015, from http://www.statista.com/statistics/212260/methods-for-watching-video-content-among-us-college-students/.

Happy World Statistics Day! Celebrate in style by checking out the Statista database, an awesome source for statistics available from the SMCM Library.

Statista is a statistics aggregator with over one million statistical facts covering over 80,000 topics, from over 18,000 sources, with over 500 stats added daily (phew!). Not only can you use Statista to get serious stats on industry, health, and society, but you can also find out what the most pirated TV show of 2014 was. (Spoiler: it was Game of Thrones, which apparently costs $6 million per episode to make. WHAT.)

On top of being crammed full of all kinds of stats, Statista provides attractive graphs (like the one at the beginning of this post) that you can incorporate into your paper or presentation!

Statista is available through the SMCM Library Databases page libguides.smcm.edu/databases

Hispanic Heritage Month: Film & Literature

October 2, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month. Throughout the month we will be featuring resources available from the SMCM Library. For more info check out hispanicheritagemonth.gov

For the final post in our National Hispanic Heritage Month series, we’re featuring a few great books and films available from the SMCM Library. You can always find more excellent books and films by Hispanic writers and filmmakers by searching the SMCM Library Catalog.

Books

This Is How You Lose Her, Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz’s collection of short stories focusing on love in it’s myriad forms was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. This Is How You Lose Her comes preloaded on library Kindles, available for 2 week check-outs at the circulation desk.

If you enjoy Díaz’s short stories, check out his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, available in a glorious, physical print copy in the SMCM Library Popular Reading section.

Films

Looking for an interesting look at the lives of everyday people? Americano As Apple Pie is a two-part documentary series looking at Latino culture in the United States, from big cities to small towns. The series looks at the Latino influence on American culture from entertainment to politics.

If you prefer fantasy, check out Pan’s Labyrinth, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 dark Spanish-language fairy tale. Set in Spain after the Spanish Civil War, Pan’s Labyrinth uses stunning visual effects to tell a story of loss, rebellion, and empowerment that blurs the lines between what is real and what is imagined.

Both Americano As Apple Pie and Pan’s Labyrinth are available in the SMCM Library DVD collection for three-day check outs.

Hispanic Heritage Month: HAPI

September 25, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

Suramérica by Carlos Adampol Galindo (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/36CEAz

HAPI (Hispanic American Periodical Index), a non-profit project of the Latin American Institute at UCLA, provides access to hundreds of thousands of article citations.

Topics range from political, economic, social issues, to the arts and humanities from journals published around the world focusing on issues effecting Latin America and the Caribbean.

HAPI has over 300,000 citations with over 170,000 links to full text from over 675 journals going back to the 1970s.

HAPI is available through the SMCM Library Databases page libguides.smcm.edu/databases

Hispanic Heritage Month: Journal of Latino / Latin American Studies

September 18, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

“Mural panoramico” by Farisori; Photo of “Presencia de América Latina” by Jorge González Camarena, at Universidad de Concepción, Chile (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Do you know JOLLAS? The Journal of Latino / Latin American Studies, co-edited by Dr. Jonathan Santo and Dr. Ramón Guerra at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal, focused on, you guessed it, issues related to the Latino experience in the U.S. and throughout Latin America. Each issue is centered on a theme, creating a diversity of scholarship across multiple topics and and areas of study. You can read about everything from Feminist Chicana research methodology, to self-esteem in Latino adolescents, to socio-emotional development in Latin America.

Access to JOLLAS is available through the SocIndex with Full Text database, from 2003 to the most current issue (Sept. 2015).

3 Things You May Not Know About the Library

August 28, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

Whether it’s your 1st or 8th (or, err, 10th) semester the library is doing cool stuff that you might not know about. So in the librarian-y spirit of sharing information, here are 3 things you might not know about the SMCM Library:

1. There’s so much more to check out than books!

…like Chromebooks and laptops, chargers for PC laptops and MacBooks, headphones, Kindles, extension cords, dry erase boards…

PLUS chargers for Android and iPhones! Yassssssssss!

2. (Almost) no overdue fines!

I mean, you still get charged if you never return it, but tons of items are late fee free!

For a complete list of things that don’t have overdue fines (and the ones that do!) see the libraries full fine policy for details.

3. All the Super Nice People^TM who want to help you!

Really. So. Nice.

Have a question? Just ask.

From finding Course Reserves to researching your SMP, they live for this stuff.

Criterion Collection DVDs

May 18, 2015 by Amanda VerMeulen

If you’re a film lover, you’re likely familiar with The Criterion Collection, a highly selective continuing series of important classic and contemporary films loaded with in-depth special features. The collection is based on filmmaker legends like Fellini, Bergman, and Hitchcock, but also includes modern favorites like Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, and Guillermo del Toro. In short, if it’s a meaningful film, you’ll likely find it in the Criterion Collection…

And in the St. Mary’s Library DVD collection! We have a range of Criterion Collection DVDs such as:

It’s an eclectic collection, and it’s fantastic.

You can browse all of the Criterion films in the library’s DVD collection online, or search for your favorite.

Black History Month: A Mini-Bib of Children’s Books

Research Spotlight: Octavia Butler

Contemporary Black Artists in ARTstor

Database Trial: oaFindr from 1science

World Statistics Day & Statista