Open til 1AM

The top request I hear from students is to extend library hours.  11 P.M. is too early to close.

While we work on a real answer to that need, we have found the resources to extend our closing time around exam time.  If you have been in the library over the past week, you know that the library gets downright crowded as the semester winds down.  I guess research papers and final exams have something to do with this!

In any case starting tomorrow (Wednesday, December 3), the main library will remain open until 1AM until the end of finals.  The exception to this will be Fridays and Saturdays, when we will keep regular hours.

Your feedback on hours will be appreciated and help with our long term planning.  Thanks.

Lib web

You might have noticed the sudden appearance of a search box in the top right pane of the Library’s main web page, labelled “Search All Databases.”  This is a new federated search tools that aids in the discovery of online resources.

This tool searches approximately 75 different databases — mostly those supported through library subscriptions, but also including Wikipedia, Google and Google Scholar.  The idea behind the federated search is not to replace the individual databases search interface, but to help users discover documents that they normally would miss.  For example, the Marist College Library has found that using federated searching does not significantly increase the number of searches performed on well-know and heavily used databases (such as Academic Search Premier and ERIC).  It does, however, give a big boost to the number of searches performed on the lesser know databases, such as JSTOR or the Alexander Street Press history databases.

After you start a search, results will quickly come back, although some databases may take longer to repond than others.  You will find links on the left side of the results page to each database searched and the number of results.  At any point, just click on the database name and the results will display — even if the system is continuing to retrieve all of your results.

While the “Search All Databases” link does include all of the federated search databases, you may wish to limit your search to a subset, arranged around a partcular subject area.  You can do this by clicking on the link in the middle column of the web page “Find journal articles on specific subjects.”  Once you choose a subject, you will see a box at the top of the page.  This will perform a federated search on just the databases that cover that field.

Please give us your feedback on this tool as you have a chance to use it this semester.

Check out the latest ebook subscription by the library.  Books 24×7 provides many books and manuals on all topics related to computers.  Need to learn about HTML?  XML?  CSS?  How about if you just want a Dummies Guide to Word?  Books 24×7 will help out.

Since new books are added to 24×7 all of the time, you will always find books that deal with the latest software or standard.  Let us know what you think.

The library now has an online subscription to Grove Music Online.  This work starts with the definitive Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and adds much additional content.  This publisher description provides a good overview of the content included in this subscription:

Grove Music Online has been the leading online resource for music research since its inception in 2001, a glorious compendium of music scholarship offering the full texts of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition (2001), as well as all subsequent updates and emendations. Including 50,000 signed articles and 28,000 biographies contributed by over 6,000 scholars from around the world, Grove Music Online is the unsurpassed authority on all aspects of music.

Now the cornerstone of Oxford Music Online, a subscription to Grove Music Online also includes The Oxford Companion to Music (2002), which offers more than 8,000 articles on composers, performers, conductors, individual works, instruments and notation, forms and genres; The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Second Edition, Revised (2006) will similarly supplement Grove’s more extensive coverage with content geared toward undergraduates and general users. In addition, a robust, new linking program features improved and expanded links to sound examples via partnerships with Classical Music Library and DRAM, as well as links to the RILM database of music bibliography. Grove Music Online articles also feature biographical linking to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for mutual subscribers to both, and a host of tools and resources, including timelines and topical guides.

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, has been widely acclaimed as an indispensable resource and a classic reference. For the 2001 Second Edition, every one of the first edition’s 22,500 articles was reviewed and revised, with thousands of articles expanded. Previously neglected or under-represented areas were examined, explored, and explained. Movements and topics once deemed too controversial or too far from the mainstream were added along with extensive, authoritative contributions on non-Western music.
• The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Second Edition, edited by Barry Kernfeld, is the largest, most comprehensive and accurate reference work on jazz ever published, putting the world of jazz at your fingertips. With articles on every aspect of the field, from jazz groups, composers and arrangers to instruments, terms, record labels and venues, it is the ideal companion for scholars and enthusiasts in this rapidly growing field.
• The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie, is unsurpassed in its scope and quality, with contributions from over 1,300 of the world’s leading critics and scholars. A remarkable 11,000 articles, all fully cross-referenced, create a work that has become established as the essential opera reference. Indeed, every aspect of this varied art form is covered: composers, conductors, directors, performers, librettists, literary sources, cities and countries, operatic historians, and opera genres and terminology.

The project team from Roger, Dean and Perry was back in the library on June 12 and 13.  The primary goal of this visit was to finalize a first pass at determining space needs for staff, collections, and public space (reader accommodations).  The architects met with library staff, students, and administrators.

When the team next comes to campus on July 1 and 2, they will present a block diagram of space that support the programmatic needs of the library.  This will not be a design that shows a diagram of the library with offices, stacks, and seating.  Instead it will show blocks, each one representing a particular function in the library.  The big blocks will naturally be used for the collections and student seating/public areas.

This helps get a sense of how much space is necessary, and provides a way to begin discussions and negotiations that bring space and budget into line with each other.

The process has begun!  The library renovation/expansion project is underway.  An architectural firm — Perry, Dean, Rogers (PDR) from Boston — has been hired to help with programming, feasibility study, and design.  The first meeting was held last Tuesday, with PDR’s project team visiting the College and meeting with the Library Planning Committee.

As we move through this process, I will use the blog to provide updates on the project.  As always, we welcome your thoughts on any aspect of this facilities project.  The PDR project team is scheduled to come back to campus on May 20 and 21 to meet with different groups to begin to develop an understanding of what the library does and what we hope it can become.

Linked Documents

Minutes of the Kickoff Meeting, May 6, 2008.

“Wikipedia is the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

“Wikipedia is completely unreliable and should be kept far away from students.”

This pretty much sums up the two extremes of thought regarding Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. I will try to write this post without exposing my own bias on the subject. (Can you see my poker face?)

Just the facts

• Wikipedia began in March 2000.
• As of March 2008, it has approximately 10 million articles in 253 languages. (For purposes of comparison, the 2007 Encyclopedia Britannica has 65,700 articles.)
• Registered Wikipedia users can create new articles, but anyone can edit existing articles (e.g. they can be edited anonymously).
• Wikipedia uses vandal-repair bots to scan the site and to repair malicious changes to entries, but it also relies on its community of people, Wikipedians, to do the same.

The Controversy

• Since there is no peer-review process to validate the information, many people simply stay away from Wikipedia, viewing the site as unreliable.
• Michael Gorman, the controversial past-president of the American Library Association, condemned Wikipedia (and Google), stating that academics who endorse the use of Wikipedia are “the intel­lectual equivalent of a dietician who recommends a steady diet of Big Macs with everything.”
• Wikipedia is becoming a common sources for journalists, academics, lawyers, and students.

Just for Laughs

• The Onion – the satirical print and online newspaper (if you haven’t read it, you are missing a weekly chortle) – published an article titled, Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence.
• Michael Scott of the TV show The Office (if you don’t watch The Office, you are missing a prolonged weekly chortle) says, Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.

So how do you deal with Wikipedia? I’d like to know what you think and if you use it either on a personal level or for research and work.

[Oh, BTW, when I wrote the phrase "since sliced bread" above, it got me wondering where that phrase came from. According to Wikipedia, this phrase became popular when Wonder Bread first mass-marketed sliced bread in the 1930s, touting their innovation.]

As library planning for renovation/expansion moves forward, the idea of adding a cafe to the library has been raised. This is not a radical idea; many libraries built or renovated in the last decade have included a cafe. They can be very popular features, and in some cases, cause for concern.

I’ve solicited some viewpoints on cafes, included below. (No one wished to play villain, so I have taken up the argument against cafes.) However, this is only the beginning of this discussion. Please add to this debate; your ideas will help us plan as we move ahead.

Against the Cafe [Peter Koonz]

I hesitate to speak out against the idea of a cafe in the library. I’d be more popular if I tied my hair up in a bun and starting saying “Sssshhh” to everyone I came across. Nevertheless, there are a few reasons why a cafe in the library is not a good idea, and I know that there are more than a few students who support this point.

Occasionally, I get a suggestion in the library suggestion box that says something like this:

The library is not a deli. Stop students from bringing food in and acting like this is a restaurant. The smell is overwhelming and I can’t study.

There is no doubt that a balance must be struck, even in a modern library. Many people still come to the library for quiet study and peaceful contemplation. Loud talk, the sounds of unwrapping (candy, sandwiches, etc.), the smells of food — all of these things add to the level of distraction within the environment.

In addition, few people eat everything on a plate (or in a pizza box). The remains attract bugs, rodents, insects, and other nasty things that are better kept away from library patrons and, just as importantly, away from books and journals, which can be destroyed by pests.

Better to keep the cafeteria in the cafeteria.

In Favor of a Library Cafe [Marisa Gitto]

I believe that a library café would enhance the St. Rose community. There are a few reasons why I feel the Neil Hellman Library would benefit by having a café including a relaxed environment, increase patronage, and honestly times are changing. I feel students would like it because the library will become a more relaxed environment. Students always become hungry and thirsty while studying, researching, and writing papers while in the library. Having extra energy from nourishment is always a plus and gives an extra lift especially when getting writer’s block. Who likes leaving the library when you are in the midst of a great study session? Having the café in the library would increase promotion of what an Information Commons is all about.

Secondly, more people would come to use the library if there was a café housed within it. I have seen Butler Library at Columbia University with a café, and it is a very popular place. Many students and faculty use it, and is reminiscent to an old-fashioned, French café where writing, conversation, laughter, and reading for enjoyment take place. Libraries in the 21^st century are changing. I believe traditional library settings are on the out. The new generation represents openness. To meet the needs of the future generations at St. Rose, a café in the Neil would establish a creative atmosphere.

So, when you are pondering this idea of whether you think the Neil Hellman Library should or should not have a café, remember the well used adage, “Food for Thought!”

Note: The library currently allows drinks to be brought in to the building in covered containers. Food is NOT allowed.

The project for renovation/expansion of the Neil Hellman Library takes its next step.  Five architectural firms have submitted concept proposals in response to the College’s RFP.  These five proposals have been placed on library reserve at the main desk of the library (items B159 – B163).

Input from all members of the Saint Rose community is appreciated, so if you are able, please have a look at what the architects have put together and let me know what you think.

Art Garfunkel has an odd and interesting web site, in which he lists every single book that he has read since June 1968. There are hundreds of books here, mostly fairly high-brow stuff with a sprinkling of popular books. For example, recently Garfunkel has tackled Reinhold Niebuhr, Edmund Burke, Octavio Paz, V.S. Naipaul, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

With all that reading going on, the sound of silence must prevail at his house. (Double apologies for the lame joke and crusty sixties reference.)