Category Archives: General

General, News

New and Improved Discover Service

Discover LogoOver Christmas Break 2013-2014, the library changed Discovery systems. Discover allows you to search across most of our databases and for books in the library.

Discover provides:

  • EBSCO‘s familiar interface (i.e., Academic Search Premier or Business Source Elite)
  • Easy off-campus access to full text with the FindIt!@SJU button
  • Better and more relevant search results
  • Improved MLA formatted citations
  • Topic exploration and Interdisciplinary research
  • Easy article location (even without a full citation)

Two other prominent interdisciplinary resources were also updated over Break.
For more information and video tutorials:

LexisNexis Academic Web of Science

General, Reading

Season’s Readings 2013

1 Comment

The eagerly awaited 2013 edition of the Francis A. Drexel Library’s popular Season’s Readings is now available.

This year’s list is full of interesting books as exciting as previous years.

There are adventure novels, historical perspectives, biographical narratives, and case studies. Pretty much something for everyone.

Peruse the list and get that special someone a great holiday gift, find something for yourself, or simply give the list itself as a gift.

2013 Season’s Readings

For access to previous Season’s Readings lists, click here.

General, News

1 for 1 Commencement Challenge: Celebrate the Class of 2012!

SJU’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations is asking all alumni, parents and friends to participate in the 1 for 1 Commencement Challenge by making a gift to honor current seniors during the month leading up to Commencement, May 12, 2012. They will be counting down the donors needed to reach 1189 gifts during this month long challenge, one gift for every graduating senior. Not only will challenge participants be honoring SJU seniors (even a specific senior if they so choose), they will be supporting current and future SJU students as well.

Check out their website to learn more about the Commencement Challenge, to chart its progress, and to donate!

Building, Events, General, News

Drexel Library open 24/7 During Finals!

Drexel Library open 24/7 During Finals

Beginning Sunday, December 11 and through finals, the Francis A. Drexel Library will be open 24 hours.

Time: December 11 – December 17 (closing at 4:00pm that Saturday)

Please note: During extended hours, there will be no technical or library assistance.

A valid SJU ID is required to use Drexel Library. Security escorts are available by calling x1111.

————————————————-

Café Hours Fall Finals Week 2011

Sun. 12/11 4pm-Midnight

Mon. 12/12 – Fri. 12/16 10am-Midnight

Events, General, News

Countdown to Final Exams Workshop, December 7 & 8


/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

Don’t delay! Register today for a workshop that will help you learn effective techniques to take the pressure off your last week of the semester. This workshop, presented by the Learning Resource Center, will present effective strategies to help you begin preparing for final exams.

Room/Location: Francis A. Drexel Library, 2nd Floor – Room 218.

Dates: Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM.

Thursday, December 8, 2011, 11:30am – 1:00pm

Sponsor: Learning Resource Center.
Contact: Carolyn Zaccagni. czaccagn@sju.edu Phone: 610-660-1846.

Registration Link: http://www.sju.edu/studentlife/studentresources/sess/lrc/services/workshops/index.html

Events, General, News

Saint Joseph’s students can reserve Group Study rooms from November 28 – December 17.

Group Study Room

Rooms available for reservation: 204, 205, 216, 217, and 219.

Please stop by the Information Desk on the 1st floor to reserve. You can also fill out our online form on the library home page, call x1904, or E-mail refhelp@sju.edu.

Students are free to use the rooms if they are not reserved. If a group has reserved the room, students are expected to finish up their work within 15 minutes and yield the room to those with reservations.

General, Multimedia, Publishing, Sociology, Uncategorized

Producing and Reusing Responsibly

More and more often, college professors around the country are assigning new projects instead of a traditional research paper.  We recently had a Social Problems class in the library that were developing 2-3 minute viral advertisements to promote awareness on a specific social issue or problem.  Doing multimedia projects can be fun, but it comes with all kinds of new rules and responsibilities for using, adapting, and distributing information.  Did you know, for instance, that the production of any work of any kind, whether it be a snapshot, a term paper, or even a doodle, is copyrighted the moment it’s produced?  That means it’s FULLY protected against others taking, adapting, and republishing it — including you, even for a school project.  Fortunately, there are also sites out there that are willing and eager to make their content free for the taking and/or the adapting – mostly under a Creative Commons license.  Check out our Research Toolkit about finding multimedia resources for adaptation, and watch this video from the Creative Commons site that explains the restrictions of copyright and the benefits of using Creative Commons.  It’s incredibly important in this day and age to become a responsible user of information, but we also need to become responsible producers.  As you develop multimedia projects, think about sharing your own content under a creative commons license, too!

Blogs, Business, Economics, General, Publishing, Reading, Uncategorized

Doomsday for print?

With the onslaught of new forms of media ushered in by fast-evolving technologies and the growth of the internet, the world of print is changing rapidly.  Magazines are discussing the doomsday prophesies of the book industry, as smaller publishers get gobbled up by large conglomerate companies interested mostly in the bottom line (this article from the magazine New York lays out the tumultuous road the book industry faces).  Newspapers are commenting on the demise of the magazine (check out this cool graphic from the New York Times that shows the number of ad pages plummeting for some mags), and bloggers are announcing that the age of the newspaper is drawing to a close (this blog entry is one among many).   As publishing drastically changes in the new information economy, libraries do try and keep up, and it is no stretch to say that the libraries of the future will look drastically different than the ones of the past.   Yet, as of now, we need to remember that projections and predictions aren’t the same as reality — we’ll continue to collect print materials as long as there are important print materials published.  And let’s hope that the really quality materials will be skillful enough to adapt to new markets and new readers!

Thanks to Cynthia Slater for the New York Times graphic!

SF.

Authors, English, Events, General

African American Read-In

As many of you probably know, February is Black History month, and, in the spirit of celebrating African American contributions to society and culture, the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English sponsors a nation-wide read-in of African American literature.  All across the country, all month long, schools, college campuses, churches, libraries, and other community and cultural centers will host gatherings where people can come, listen, and read their favorite writing from African American authors.

The Drexel Library, too, has a history of joining in with their own hosted read-in, which will take place on Monday, February 2, at 3:30 p.m.  Come join in by bringing your favorite African American writer’s work to read, or just come by to listen and reflect.

We hope to see you there!

SF.

General, Reference, Uncategorized

An Alternative to Wikipedia

I am sometimes shocked and dismayed by how much I see Wikipedia open on computers within the library.  Okay, we know why you go to Wikipedia: it comes up within the top 10 results list of just about any Google search; it provides you with quick background information; it’s just so easy.  But, we also know that Wikipedia is written and edited by anybody and everybody who feels a hankering to share information of any kind about things they don’t necessarily know a whole lot about.  And, we know that citing Wikipedia on a paper or using it for studying just might be academic suicide.  If you need proof, check out this article from The New York Times discussing an error students consistently made on a history exam, due to the notorious Wikipedia.

If you need an alternative to Wikipedia, try Credo Reference from the library (in our Resources A-Z list, accessible from the library’s homepage).  It searches across 350 general and subject-specific encyclopedias for any topic you might want to know more about (information on just about all disciplines are included), and they’re reputable, so you don’t have to worry about citing them in a paper.  Just think – a few clicks away from Google and Wikipedia, there’s an information source that you can really trust!

SF.