American History Assignment

As usual Will Simson has assigned a fascinating and creative research topic for his students.  They are to start with their own families, ask questions, and discover family history as far back as the 1920's, if possible. Then they will do library research to connect the personal stories of the four most interesting people in their families to major events in American history. There are two copies of the assignment at the Ref. Desk.

Students are able to use Ancestry Library Edition to find more info on their relatives.  (Play around with this resources, if you aren't already familiar. It is only available ON CAMPUS.) Then they can use the typical primary and secondary source books and articles to make links to U.S. history.

There are about 100 students doing this project, and each one will have a very different focus, but here's an example of one investigation.  A student knew that his grandfather fought in WW II and was able to find a picture of his draft card in Ancestry.  He can then look for other primary documents related to that war. (See the LibGuide for help guides.gpc.edu/HIST2112Simson . Milestone documents and Annals of America will be sufficient, but Academic Search Complete will also limit to primary sources.) He can find local news about the war in Historic Atlanta Constitution. (For more recent events, LexisNexis is better.) He can find general information in a plethora of books we have on the war. He can find academic articles about a battle (or country or branch of the armed forces) where his grandfather served. (Will will also accept articles from National Geographic and Smithsonian.)  As you can see, this is a very rich and interesting assignment.

However, it's also a tough one for students whose families have recently immigrated to the US. In their case, they are to research what was happening in relations between their home country and the US at the time of, or leading up to their move. There has to be some tie-in to US history.

Please add your thoughts to this post.  Thanks for helping the students.

Splitters Available

We now have two splitters available for checkout at the Circulation Desk. The splitter will allow two users to share a computer/laptop and watch a video/movie together.

Scanning Documents

The Business Spot (Jcard Office) no longer offer the option to scan documents. If students need to scan documents please refer them to the Jag Spot (Computer Lab), Room E160.

Notaries on Campus

Occasionally we get requests for notary services. We have two notaries public on the Dunwoody Campus:
Amy Roberts in the Dean's Suite, NA 1240. Phone 770-274-5462
Nancy Kilpatrick in Science Division, ND2000-9. Phone 770-274-5492
Please call for availability before sending a patron to them.

If you get a phone or chat inquiry about other campuses, refer them to the library in Clarkston or Decatur.  Each has a notary on staff. In Alpharetta send to the Dean's Suite, and in Newton to the Testing Center.

Streaming Video

This is a copy of Sonya' post on email.  Please ask if you are unclear about this. The bottom line is that students can directly access three of the four streaming film sources.  For SWANK, they need to go to their courses in iCollege to have access.

Sonya's text:

We had a number of questions lately through e-mail and chat about watching streaming films, so I want to make sure that we are on the same page answering them.

GPC Libraries currently offer four streaming video options: Films on Demand, American History in Video, Digital Theatre Plus and SWANK.

FOD, American History in Video, Digital Theatre are unlimited simultaneous use by all faculty and students, records for films are in out catalog. Films can be accessed through OPAC and through collections’ native interfaces.

SWANK – we currently have 25 full features films available for streaming (see list below). They are also unlimited simultaneous use, but due to the licensing requirements, links to these films should be requested by faculty and placed in iCollege before students can watch them.

So, when asked about watching streaming films:

-          Ask about the title of the film first to determine what collection can be used to access it.

-          If it is a feature film, check our SWANK list to see if it is available (http://guides.gpc.edu/SWANK)

-          If it is available through SWANK, ask what class/ instructor it is for and advise a student that their instructor has to request a link and make a film available through iCollege class.

-          You are welcome to contact the instructor with relevant information about SWANK or ask me to do it.

More information about SWANK – http://guides.gpc.edu/SWANK

More information about streaming video in GPC Libraries collection - http://guides.gpc.edu/gpcvideo

Please let me now if you have any questions.

List of SAWNK titles that are currently available:

Anchorman (2004, Adam McKay)

Bamboozled (2000, Spike Lee) 

Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein) 

Bicycle Thief (1948, Vittorio de Sica)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)

Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)

Crash (2004, Paul Haggis)

Dark Girls (2011, D. Channsin Berry, Bill Duke)

Do the Right Thing (1989, Spike Lee)

Gattaca (1997, Andrew Niccol)

Inception (2010, Christopher Nolan)

Monster's Ball (2001, Marc Forster)

New World (2005, Terrence Malick)

On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan)

Paper clips (2004, Elliot Berlin, Joe Fab)

Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)

Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)

Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)

Shawshank Redemption (1994, Frank Darabont)

Singin' in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)

Social Network (2010, David Fincher)

Tombstone (1993, George P. Cosmatos)

Waiting for "Superman" (2010, Davis Guggenheim)

West Side Story (1961, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins)

GPC Reads 2015/16 Selection and Activities - Congressman John Lewis' "March, Book One"

The 2015-16 GPC Reads selection is the graphic novel, “March: Book One,” by U.S. Congressman John Lewis, along with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell.

GIL record shows it as vol. 1.  There is a vol. 2, but it is not part of GPC Reads.

Author:	Lewis, John, 1940 February 21-
Title:	March / [written by] John Lewis, Andrew Aydin ; [illustrated by] Nate Powell.  Vols. 1 and 2.
Publisher:	Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, 2013- FOR Vol. 1: We have 3 copies on 3 Day Reserve (so they can take it out of Library) We have 2 copies on Display, which checks out for 14 days (currently checked out) The copy in Graphic Novel vol. 1 is Lost.

Lewis and Aydin will speak about the book at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3, in the Cole Auditorium on Georgia Perimeter College’s Clarkston Campus. A book signing and reception will follow the event, which is free and open to the public.

For more info see,
http://newsroom.gpc.edu/stories/us-congressman-and-author-john-lewis-visit-sept-3-gpc-reads-event

Back to School!

Welcome back, everyone! It's been too long since a post to DUN Ref. The summer was very productive with our inventory project.We'll be finished with most of the circulating book collection before classes start; work will continue on non-print and reference. I'll bet we finish completely by the end of September. Thanks to all who helped and are helping with it.

As students return, they will have many questions about enrollment and registration.  The best rule of thumb is to direct them to the appropriate office.  The ASK ME team has prepared two documents of FAQs and helpful phone numbers. You'll find copies of each on both sides of the desk. Please make sure the documents stay at the desk for the first couple of weeks of classes.  Please also wear an ASK ME button while you're on shift. Thank you!

Yesterday the library welcomed about 30 new Dental Hygiene students. What a great group they are. The program has really rigorous entrance requirements, so these are very capable and motivated students. Many use the library for research, and especially to study together, work on group projects, and generally help each other through the program.  If you want to be most helpful to these students, use your slow time to become comfortable with CINAHL and ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health databases. Practice some searches that you think would be of interest to them. Know also that we have several scholarly journals for that discipline in print for them (and you) to browse. Finally, there is a LibGuide designed especially for them at guides.gpc.edu/dentalhygiene.


You've received an email from Tamika about a Saturday brunch/meeting on the 29th. Hope to see you all there.