Perrotta History Assignments

Three of Professor Perrotta's classes are doing research this semester. The assignments are in the tray on the Ref. Desk so you can see them. Info Lit instruction for her classes was voluntary and only six students (all from HIST2112) showed up, so expect to do some instructing at the desk.

Here are just a few tips:

For the Perspectives Class, most of the topics relate to body image, clothing, or media.  The list is on the assignment sheet.  Students need to find a book and a scholarly article on their topics. You'll be able to easily help them find books, though some may need to be requested from other campuses. I recommend using Academic Search Complete and JSTOR for scholarly articles. (There may be some topic pages in Opposing Viewpoints that could be helpful, but it's more of a scavenger hunt in there.)

For the HIST 2111 and 2111 classes, stick to books in GIL-Find or GIL-Find Universal. I had good results doing an all fields search with the name in quotes (but don't use quotes with a subject search). Academic articles can come from ASC and JSTOR.  Specific Georgia info can be found on the Search by Subject databases designated for Georgia History, though many of them are short, encyclopedia-type entries. There are also two helpful newspaper databases:  Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945) and LexisNexis.  Katie also pointed them to the Georgia Digital Archive. 

Batting Practice

 Photo by Leoraul Torres - Wikimedia Commons

When I used to work at Emory, we had regular reference meetings to share our experiences helping users.  We called them batting practice because we often swung and missed or needed to bunt or occasionally hit one out of the park!  (I'm sure you understand the metaphor!) No matter what, we were supportive and learned from each other. So in the spirit of Spring Training, I'll share a challenge that came our way today.

Strike one: An ESL student was looking for a book called The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. A search in GIL first resulted in a hit on a three volume Graphic Canon with many selections, but the TOC showed no story by the title requested. It turns out that surrounding the search terms with quotes to bind the phrase resulted in 0 hits.  So we went to GIL Universal to discover that this was a book of short stories by Roald Dahl. It was held by a few USG schools, but the student needed the book right away so a GIL Express Request was impractical.

Strike two: Upon further conversation the actual selection needed was called "The Mildenhall Treasure" which is part of the aforementioned book. Next place to look: a collection or anthology with this Dahl story.  No such collection at GPC, or abundant elsewhere, though Atlanta-Fulton seemed to have one somewhere. (BTW, a few years ago Amy Bursi and Mary Ann Cullen did their best to get TOCs for all our anthologies in the catalog, which helps tremendously in finding short stories!)

Foul ball: What about the pubic library?  Our student lives near a branch of the Dekalb County Public Library. The only copy they had was in Korean at Doraville, but our patron was a Francophone from Africa. (If we'd kept looking, we would have found a single volume of the Mildenhall story in Juvenille lit at Chamblee.)

So it seems we had two strikes and a foul ball, which is when we tried an act of desperation:  we Googled it. Lo and behold, the full text of a Penguin edition was available online at  http://bit.ly/1glt1A8
I'm not sure if that meant we used a pinch hitter or what, but the student left with the text to read before the next class session.  Sometimes you just get lucky!

Pat

Printing from ICollege

There has been much confusion over the new system of printing from iCollege. There's a handout at the desk that explains how to do it, but basically, here's the scoop.

For .pdf use internal icons to give the print command.

For a Microsoft file, enable editing , then use file>print in the usual way.

The Desire to Learn 24/7 support line is 1-855-772-0423.

New Year, New Semester, New Faces

2014 got off to a chilly start!  The threat of black ice gave the full-timers a delayed opening on the 6th,  and a water main break gave us most of the day off on the 7th. Everything at the corner of Tilly Mill and Womack was a literal sheet of ice, but the main problem for us was that there wasn't enough water to flush the toilets!

You'll notice that the African art was removed over break and replaced by the work of local artists: mostly GPC students.  The new exhibit features student work in a variety of mediums interpreting the theme "Home," a response to the GPC Reads book this year, Beyond Katrina.  We've got some great talent here at GPC!

Finally, you'll be seeing some new faces on staff.  Two part-time librarians have joined our ranks:  Mary Etta Thomas and Vikki Walters.  I'll soon ask them to write a short self-introduction for you, but very briefly... 

• Mary Etta has been a school media specialist for decades.  She recently retired from the Dekalb County School System. 
• Vikki is a  recent MLIS graduate of the University of North Texas, and a long-time paraprofessional in the Atlanta Fulton Public Library System.

Please welcome these new colleagues.  And WELCOME BACK to ALL of you!

Finals and Food

It's that time again.  Students are stressed, loud, apparently hungry, and borderline crazy.  We had to put up very explicit "No food in the library" signs, because of a couple of incidents when students got belligerent after being asked to take their snacks to the lobby.  (Public Safety got involved.) Just so you know, we're trying to consistently enforce the "no food/covered beverage only" rule. If you have an unpleasant encounter, I'd advise getting another staff person there as a witness and then "call for back up."

 Finals Schedule can be found at http://registrar.gpc.edu/final_exam_fall2013.html  (There are a couple of print copies at the desk.) So far as I know there is only one exam in our classroom & that's on the afternoon of Monday, the 9th from 1-3.

Thanks for all you do to help the students finish their projects and abide by the library rules!

Respondus Lockdown Browsers

If anyone is trying to take a test that requires the Respondus Lockdown Browser program, the computers in the Jag Spot (computer lab) have it. Go Jag Spot!

Night or Weekend Tech Troubles

We arrived this morning to a line of students and no way to print because Pharos had a problem with JCard authentication.  We found out by talking with  Clarkston that the problem began over the weekend.  So sorry you had to cope with that.  Clarkston uses a tech trouble log to communicate all the computer/printer/copier trouble, but we'd rather opt for direct communication. When such trouble arises on the weekend or in the evening, please send email to Tamika, Carmel and Pat so that one of us can deal with it ASAP the next morning.  Please also remember that in an emergency, you can allow students to use the classroom as long as a librarian is in there at the podium to supervise.