Students Teaching Students at Grinnell College Libraries

Have you ever needed to know how many books you had checked out from the library, or which database to use for a particular subject or class?

The Libraries have trained the 40+ students already working at service desks in Burling (circulation, Listening Room, and the Iowa Room) and Kistle Science Libraries to serve as Peer Information Advisors (PIAs). These students, as well as their desk supervisors, can now help with a range of commonly asked research questions—such as the two listed above.

The Libraries have also trained three students as Reference Assistants (or RAs) who can help with more advanced research inquires. Look for our RAs on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at Burling’s reference desk; the RAs will also be available from 10 pm-12 midnight on Sunday thru Thursday evenings.

And please send any comments or suggestions on these new services to Phil Jones [jonesphi] or Beth Bohstedt [bohstedt].

Library Student Assistants Honor Cinema’s “Golden Year”

1939 was a monumental year for cinema. Some historians have minted it as the greatest year in film history. Indeed, some of the 20th Century’s most memorable titles, including Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, came out during that year. The selections for 1939’s Oscars were so great that instead of the normal five nominations for Best Picture, ten films were nominated in this category.

Throughout November, student assistants from Burling Library’s Listening Room are honoring the seventieth anniversary of this memorable year in cinema by creating posters, presentations, and displays about films released in 1939. Be sure to check out the display of books on the first floor of Burling about the political, social, and cultural landscape that inspired the explosion of excellent cinema during this historic year. Related projects by Listening Room student assistants are also on display in the Listening Room and on the library’s first floor. The topics, ranging from censorship in 1939 films to film directors, are listed in more detail below.

The Libraries will co-sponsor an evening of “Pizza and a Movie” with SGA Films and the Student Government Association on Thursday, November 19th, at 7:00 pm in the Forum South Lounge. The featured film is one of 1939’s finest, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Appetizers, pizza, and beverages will be provided, and the event is free and open to the public. (Organized by Madeleine Allen ’10 and Rachel Smith ’11)

Other presentations are:

“Then & Now” (Katie Jones ’10) – Series of posters that compare how musicals, westerns and gangster movies have changed from 1939 to more recent releases. Highlights continuity and changes in those genres over the years. Location: Listening Room near the public computer terminal.

“The Good, The Bad, and the Censored” (Molly Kennedy ’11) -- An examination of films that either broke, cleverly bent or followed the “Hays Code” production guidelines that had been implemented just five years earlier. Presents a wide range of examples and what, if any, consequences resulted from those code violations. Location: Center of first floor book display.

“1939 Movie Posters” (Susan Kikuchi ’11) -- Examines advertisements from the three top grossing films of that year, with reproductions of each poster and a short analysis of the advertising schemes used. Specifically, it addresses target audience and strategic visual cues used to convey information about the films. Location: Window near the first floor entry to Burling.

“1939: The Arrival of Color to Movie Mainstream” (Michele Moore ’10) -- Presentation discussing the history of the use of color in films, obstacles to its use, its presence in the feature films, The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, and why mainstream films continued to be produced in black & white for decades after the process proved to be technically and commercially successful. URL: http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/collections/1939a.pdf.

“The Hays Code and the Films of 1939” (Thanh Nguyen ’12) – Explains what the Hays Production Code was and why it was created. Lists guidelines of the code. Locations: First floor display area and Listening Room.

“The Golden Year of Hollywood: An Analysis of Socio-Political Factors Contributing to the Success of the 1939 Motion Pictures” (Musa Rahman ’10) – Poster addresses some of the reasons why 1939 was such a successful year for film and explores the political and social backdrop of the time. Location: First floor book display.

“Victor Fleming: Hollywood’s Golden Director” (Andrew Stephenson ’10) -- Director Victor Fleming's steady hand oversaw the completion of both The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. Poster discusses why Fleming replaced directors who had proceeded him and includes some interesting anecdotes about the director’s interactions with actor Judy Garland and his role in the development of the screenplay for Gone with the Wind. Location: Listening Room near the public computer terminal.

Project brochure (Caitlin Vaughan ’10) – Description of the 1939 Project including the purpose of the project and short descriptions of the 1939 films the Listening Room has in its collection. Includes a list of the other Listening Room student assistants and summary of their project presentations. Locations: First floor display area and Listening Room.

Grinnell College Libraries' Self Study Update: Comments are Welcome

The External Reviewers' report has been posted. The Libraries are beginning work on a response, which will be submitted to Executive Council in Spring 2010. We welcome comments (http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/feedback.html) from students, faculty, and staff on the Reviewers' report or our Self Study. As our response develops we will be consulting with our SEPC, the Instructional Support Committee, and other partners on campus. Thank you for your engagement.

Monday, December 14, Ipod Rave for Study Breaks @ Burling

The libraries and Library SEPC are hosting an Ipod RAVE for Study Breaks @ Burling, Monday night, December 14 at 9:00 PM, Northwest Corner of Burling 1st floor. Contact [odonogh] or [schneide2] for a playlist, load the songs onto your mp3 device, and come take a break to dance and to enjoy homemade cookies and milk (or just dance or just enjoy cookies and milk) at Burling. Study Breaks with Cookies and Milk also Tuesday and Wednesday Night at 9:00 p.m. Same location.

Questions? Contact [stuhrr], [gilbertk], [schneide2], and [odonogh]

Tuesday Night, December 15, Study Breaks @ Burling: Improv!!

Take a break from studying and relax with Grinnell's own Improv Troupe. Enjoy homemade cookies and milk at the same time. The Libraries and the Library SEPC invite you to take a break at Burling Library's first floor Northwest Corner (around the corner from the entrance), Tuesday evening, December 15, 9:00 PM.

Study Breaks will also take place on Monday and Wednesday at the same time and place. IPOD Rave on Monday night, Swing Dance Club performs on Wednesday night.

Questions? Contact [stuhrr], [gilbertk], or [isaadani]

Wednesday Afternoon, December 16, Study Breaks @ Burling: Meditative Yoga

Minna Mahlab will lead a 30 minute session of meditative yoga in Burling Library, Wednesday of finals week, 2:00 p.m. Take a study break and refresh your body and renew your mind. Exact location within the library to be determined. Come a little before 2:00 PM and we will get you to the right spot. Questions? contact [stuhrr]

Wednesday Night, December 16 Study Breaks @ Burling: Swing Dance!

The libraries and Library SEPC are hosting Grinnell College's Swing Dance Club for Study Breaks @ Burling, Wednesday night, December 16 at 9:00 PM, Northwest Corner of Burling 1st floor. Six couples from the Swing Dance Club will be performing. Come enjoy the entertainment and enjoy homemade cookies and milk at Burling. Study Breaks with Cookies and Milk also Monday and Tuesday Night at 9:00 p.m. Same location.

Questions? Contact [stuhrr], [gilbertk], [rideoutm]

Fall Semester Events Hosted by the Libraries

Come join us for Wednesday Nights @ Burling, a series of events that showcase the talents of local writers, singers, and musicians!

September 1, Tuesday night at 7:30pm—Prairie Reading: Below the Surface: A Reading of Prairie Texts. Refreshments will be served.
Location: Faulconer Gallery

September 16, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Dan McCue: When News Breaks the Daily Show Fixes It: The role and importance of political satire. Refreshments will be served.
Location: First floor, Burling Library

October 28, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Grinnell High School Students Read Poetry at Burling; David Paige, Grinnell College and Bill Rudolph, Grinnell High School, Instructors. Refreshments will be served.
Location: First floor, Burling Library

November 5, Thursday night at 7:45pm—Open Mic: Music, Poetry, Prose. Refreshments will be served.
Location: Faulconer Gallery

November 24, Tuesday night at 4:15pm-Darwin Group Reading to Mark the 150th Anniversary of the Origin of Species. The Libraries and Biology will be hosting a group reading from the works of Darwin. Refreshments will be served.
Location: First floor, Burling Library

December 2, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Students from the Craft of Poetry read their Poetry at Burling; Ralph Savarese, Instructor. Refreshments will be served.
Location: First floor, Burling Library

Library Home Page Changes

We’ve made a few small tweaks to the library home page. Subject Guides can now be found on their own tab in the tabbed search box. The Databases A-Z list has moved to the Quick Links bar, and Connect from Off-Campus has moved to the Get Help Fast section at the bottom of the page. Research Pro can no longer be accessed directly from the home page, but you can still find it in the “More Resources” menu. We think that these changes will provide faster access, with fewer clicks, to the most frequently-used resources. Please let us know what you think!

2010 Favorite Films Festival Survey

Members of the college community are invited to vote for the films between Sunday, November 1 through Sunday, November 15 to be shown at the fourth annual Grinnell College Favorite Films Festival.

The three categories this year are:

Fantasy
Horror
Westerns

The only limit is that the films selected must be part of the Grinnell College Libraries' collections. You can search the library catalog by clicking http://cat.lib.grinnell.edu/search~S0/X?SEARCH=&SORT=D&m=g

The survey will be open for voting on PioneerWeb from Sunday, November 1st through Sunday, November 15th. The winning films will be announced shortly afterwards and will be shown on campus Friday, January 29, through Sunday, January 31, 2010.

BTW, the films shown at last year’s festival were:

Film Noir – Maltese Falcon
Foreign Films - Amelie
Animated Films - Beauty and the Beast

The Favorite Films Festival is co-sponsored by the Grinnell College Libraries and the Student Government Association Films Committee. For more information, contact Randye Jones at jonesran@grinnell.edu or the Films Committee at films@grinnell.edu.

A College. A Town. A Journey.

150 years ago, the college moved from Davenport to the recently established town of Grinnell. What has this move meant for the college and for the town? Using resources from the Department of Special Collections, and curated by Rachel Glass, ’09, this exhibition invites you to reflect on our history together, and on your own relationship with this place. Burling Library, first floor and lower level. The exhibition runs through December.

Research Pro Maintenance, November 19

Research Pro will be down for server maintenance on Thursday, November 19, from approximately 1:00pm to 2:00pm. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

Research Pro Down Time

Research Pro will be down for maintenance from 6:00pm to 7:00pm on November 3. We apologize for any inconvenience.

President Obama Proclaims October 2009 National Information Literacy Awareness Month

"National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age." To view the official press release from the White House Briefing Room, please see http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-National-Information-Literacy-Awareness-Month/.

And to learn about Grinnell College Libraries' information literacy program, please review our Guide to Academic Research web page: http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/research/infolit/academicresearchguide.html

Questions or suggestions? Please contact Phil Jones, [jonesphi] or x3355.

“Journal Finder” and “Search for Full Text” Down Time

The library’s “Journal Finder” and “ArticleLinker” services will be down for a system upgrade on Saturday, October 24 from approximately 2:00am to 4:00am. During this time the Journal Finder, the “Search for Full Text” links in all of the campus databases, and the “Full Text @ My Library” links in Google Scholar will not be available. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Poster Making and Printing at Burling

The Grinnell College Libraries' DesignJet 1050C plotter is great for making large-format posters. It has been used to print posters for students, faculty and nearly every department for poster sessions and other presentations.

Instructions for creating and printing posters are located at http://www.lib.grinnell.edu:16080/general/facilities/printers/posterprinter.html. Questions? Please email PosterPrinting@grinnell.edu.

Grinnell College Libraries Annual Report, 2008-2009

Link to the Grinnell College Libraries Annual Report, 2008-2009 [PDF]

What's New at the Libraries Fall 2009

Library Resources in Pioneer Web

Library resources are now better integrated into P-Web course pages. When you log into a course page, you will find:

• the e-reserve password for that course


• contact information for your consulting librarian


• a message box for instant messaging with a librarian


• a link to any course-specific web pages that your consulting librarian has created, with links to recommended databases, Web sites, and other important resources, or


• a link to a subject Web page, which will have a broader array of library resources in the course's discipline.

We hope this gives you more convenient access to the library resources you will need for learning and teaching.

Changes in Burling Reference

We will experiment this fall with a new reference schedule in Burling Library and a new approach to reference service. Beginning about mid-semester, we will expand desk coverage to midnight Sunday through Wednesday, but we have dropped it for Saturday afternoon (a very slow period, according to our statistics). On Fridays (another slow period at the reference desk) a librarian will be on call but not at the reference desk.

We will also be involving students in providing reference and information services—partly to give librarians more time for individual consultations and for liaison work with their departments, and partly because research suggests that student-to-student advising can be an effective complement to professional reference service. Students at the circulation desk are receiving intensified training in basic assistance with the catalog, databases, etc., and, as the fall progresses, you'll find students working at the reference desk during certain afternoon and evening hours. We'll be working very closely with these students and monitoring the service carefully. Please let us know what you think.

You'll find our complete Reference schedule at http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/general/libhours.html.
And remember that students and faculty can always contact http://www.grinnell.edu/academic/librarylab/ or query@grinnell.edu to schedule an individual or group reference consultation with a librarian!

New Face in the Libraries!

Amy Roberson has joined us as a one-year term Reference & Instruction Librarian, filling in for Gail Bonath, who is on sabbatical leave this year. Amy is a recent graduate of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her professional interests include reference services, information literacy, and Web usability. When not at work, Amy enjoys cooking, playing music, knitting, and hiking.

Middle East Studies: New Videos

With funding from the Mellon Foundation through the Mellon 23 Consortium, we have purchased 24 documentary and feature films on the Middle East and North Africa. The films are available for loan to any of the Mellon 23 member institutions. The borrowing period is 4 weeks. For a list of films, please see http://www.barnard.edu/provost/mellon23/GrinnellCollege08.pdf. For a description of the Mellon 23 Faculty Development program, please see http://www.barnard.edu/provost/mellon23.html.

New Video Players in Burling

New video players have been installed in Burling Library’s Listening Room. Six high-definition players allow patrons to directly control their DVD and VHS playing experience. Four of those are combination VCR/DVD devices for United States/Canadian region videos, and two players are set to play multi-region (international) DVDs.

Two other stations are directly connected to the Listening Room bus control system to allow small group viewing and to provide access to video formats not available on the free-standing players.

All of the video stations are also equipped with 22-inch high-definition monitors.

Visitors are welcome to use this equipment during the Listening Room’s regular hours. For more information, please call x3365.

Selected New Library Resources

(Print, Digital, Video, and Audio)

AP Images provides access to the photo archives of the Associated Press with over 4.9 million primary-source photographs and other images from 1825 to the present documenting significant moments in history, news, sports and entertainment.

Early English Books Online contains digital facsimile page images of 100,000 works printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America, as well as works in English printed elsewhere, between 1473 and 1700. It complements Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (6 vols).

James Bond Collection (the entire series of 21 films).

Oxford Reference Online provides online access to 200 specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries useful to both student and faculty research.

Play Along Jazz Recordings series. Music scores with accompanying CDs by noted jazz musicians.

Russian language encyclopedias: The new edition of The Great Russian Encyclopedia and The New Russian Encyclopedia.

Roper Center Public Opinion Data: Grinnell’s subscription to the Roper Archives provides access to over 60 years of polling data from surveys conducted around the world. Roper’s iPoll Database allows users to search for results for over 400,000 questions asked in the United States; RoperExpress allows users to download over 15,000 full datasets, including over 6,000 datasets from outside the United States, for analysis.

Times Digital Archive: Access to the complete backfile of the London Times, 1785-1985, including text, images, editorials and advertisements.

Trade Analysis and Information System (TRAINS), produced by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, provides comprehensive tariff and trade information for over 140 countries. Grinnell users have access to TRAINS through the WITS (World Integrated Trade Solutions) software client.

Viva Pedro: the collected works (on video) of Pedro Almodóvar.

Grinnell College Libraries' Open House, Friday, August 28 from 4-5:30 p.m.

The Grinnell College Libraries invite you to our Open House. Learn about the library. Enjoy food! Win Prizes!

Student assistants in the Libraries provide tours. Book store gift certificates will be raffled. Unravel the mysteries of the Libraries while enjoying FREE food and festivities!

Darwin's rEvolution Exhibit in Burling

Few works have been as influential or controversial as Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of its publication, and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, this exhibition of materials from the Libraries’ Department of Special Collections showcases our first edition of The Origin of the Species, and works which influenced or were influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. The exhibition will be on display through August on Burling Library first floor and Burling Gallery (basement).

Web Delivery of Interlibrary Services Journal Articles

The Grinnell College Libraries are now providing Interlibrary Services journal articles by Web delivery rather than by paper. In other words, instead of printing out a copy of an article that we receive electronically from another library and then sending that print-out through campus mail, our software will automatically send you an email with information that allows you to retrieve the article through your Web browser. The articles will be in PDF format and you may then save it to your computer or storage account, or print it. This service will allow us to speed delivery of articles to our patrons and reduce paper waste. Questions about this service should be directed to Gail Bonath (bonath@grinnell.edu) or Leslie Gardner (gardnerl@grinnell.edu). Or see our FAQ at http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/general/Departments/edd.html.

MAP Presentation in Burling, May 5

Hannah Zurko will be presenting her final art installation of her MAP, "Drawing through Space", in Burling Library on Tuesday, May 5th. She will be discussing a semester long project exploring the possibilities of drawing in a three-dimensional space and the process of this installation. The talk and reception will begin at 4:15 on the first floor; all are welcome to attend.

Burling Study Breaks, May 11-13

The libraries will be hosting study breaks featuring entertainment, homemade cookies (made by the library staff!) and milk at 9:00 P.M, Monday (May 11), Tuesday (May 12), and Wednesday (May 13) of finals week.

Monday night come enjoy the Improv comedy troupe. Tuesday night come hear Con Brio (female acapella choir). Wednesday night take a break with the library staff reading their favorite stories.

Summer Notices Error

We're sorry!

When we sent you courtesy notices recently, we forgot to change the text of the notice for summer check-out. Returning students may check books out for the summer. Books will be due on the first day of classes which is Thursday, August 27, 2009.

If you tried to renew your books for summer, you probably found out that it didn't work. We fixed that and you can now renew your books for the summer at https://cat.lib.grinnell.edu/patroninfo

Remember that if you check books out for the summer they can be recalled. Check your Grinnell email during the summer. If a book you have is recalled for use by another patron, you will need to return it by the NEW due date. You will have to bring the book in or have it delivered to us in a timely manner (via UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc.). Recalled books are due in 3 days from the date of recall.

Once again, we are sorry for our errors. If you have additional questions or concerns, email Gail Bonath, bonath@grinnell.edu.

Dreaming with Both Eyes Open, Grinnell College Libraries Self Study, 2008-2009

The Libraries are engaged in a self study to identify our strengths, our weaknesses, and our key directions for the next several years. We're releasing this report to the campus community for your comments, and on April 27 and 28 the Dean's office will host a team of external reviewers who will meet with students, faculty, and staff to prepare their own report of assessment and recommendations.

Please participate. We welcome all feedback!

Galileo's New Sciences: Origins and Aftermath: An Exhibition of Books from the Grinnell College Libraries' Special Collections

On view March 5 through May 19, Burling Library 1st floor and basement. A dozen volumes printed between 1561 and 1776 illuminate various aspects of the Scientific Revolution, including developments in mathematics, astronomy, politics, and theory of knowledge. This exhibition coincides with the Department of Theatre and Dance's production of Bertolt Brecht's Galileo, March 6, 7, and 8.

Preview the New Grinnell College Libraries' Homepage

The Grinnell College Libraries will soon launch a re-designed homepage. You can get a sneak peek by clicking the “Preview the new homepage” link at the top of the page. Please take a look and let us know what you think! To return to the original page, click on the text "Grinnell College Libraries" on the black header.

JSTOR's 19th Century British Pamphlets Trial Database Available

JSTOR is making its new collection of 19th century British pamphlets available without charge until June 30, 2009. These pamphlets, selected from the collections of seven research libraries in the UK, focus on the social, political, and economic issues of the time. Topics are wide-ranging and reflect the worldwide focus of Britain's vast Empire.

Pricing for this collection has not been released and there is no guarantee that access to these collections can be continued.

A more complete description of the collection is available from JSTOR http://www.jstor.org/page/info/participate/other/britishPamphlets.jsp

Search the collection now
http://www.jstor.org/action/collectionInfoPage?selectCollection=britpam

Book Jackets and Google Previews in the Library Catalog

If you've used the library catalog recently, you might have noticed that it's gotten a bit more colorful. We're now displaying book jackets (courtesy of Google Book Search) and links to the Google Book Search page for some books. From the Google Book Search page, you can click on the "Preview this book" tab at the top of the page to view a digital scan of all or part of the book. You can also use Google Book Search to search for a word or phrase within the book.

Spring Semester Events Hosted by the Libraries

This spring, Evenings @ Burling continues to showcase the talents of Grinnell students and community members. Please join us as we enjoy their fiction, poetry, and music!
February 11, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Bill Rudolph will read from his poetry.

Rudolph, former president of the Iowa Poetry Association and Christa McAuliffe Fellow, earned his MFA in Poetry Writing from Vermont College—where his mentors included Roger Weingarten, Leslie Ullman and Mark Cox; he has also studied under Edward Hirsch at Breadloaf and Jane Mead at the University of Iowa. His poetry has appeared in The Nebraska Review, Rosebud, Quarterly West, Rattle, The Comstock Review, The English Journal, The South Dakota Review, The Briar Cliff Review, The University of Iowa’s 100 Words, The Mid-America Poetry Review, Byline, and other journals. He teaches literature, writing and humanities in Grinnell, Iowa, where he lives with his wife, Paula, and their two children.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library

March 4, Wednesday night at 7 pm—co-hosted with the Faulconer Gallery—Open Mic night for fiction, poetry, and music.

Join the Grinnell College Libraries and the Faulconer Art Gallery for an evening of literature and music. Read from your own poetry and fiction or that of a favorite author or poet; perform music that you've written yourself or any piece that you've been working on. Share your literary and musical passion in a beautiful setting with other members of the college and the community of Grinnell. Come early for refreshments. If you have questions or want more information, contact Tilly Woodward [woodward] or Liz Rodrigues [rodrigel].
Location: Faulconer Gallery

April 8, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Grinnell students Amanda Gotera ’09 and Molly McArdle ’09 will read from their latest literary work.

Amanda Gotera, a senior anthropology major from Cedar Falls, Iowa, has curated children's writing for the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, worked on sea turtle conservation in Mexico, and directed the KDIC news program "Listen Hear: Stories from Grinnell." She is currently working with audio files for a Mentored Advanced Project on experimental ethnographies.

Molly McArdle, a senior English major from Washington, DC, recently published a collection of short stories titled Amenities: Four Stories of Clifton Terrace with the Grinnell College Press and is a frequent contributor to the Grinnell Review. A graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, she received an honorable mention in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts Recognition Competition. She was also winner of the Parkmont Poetry Festival Contest and a third place winner of the Horowitz Playwriting Competition. This past summer, she was awarded a Mentored Advanced Project for work in fiction.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library

April 14, Tuesday night at 7:00pm—The students of John Domini’s Craft of Fiction class will read from the work they have been writing throughout the semester. Come enjoy their work and support their efforts.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library


April 21, Tuesday night at 7:45pm—The students of John Domini’s Creative Nonfiction Seminar will read from the work they have been writing throughout the semester. Come enjoy their work and support their efforts.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library


May 6, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—co-hosted with the Faulconer Gallery—Open Mic night for fiction, poetry, and music. See description above for more details. Location: Faulconer Gallery

The Role of the Spiritual in the Civil Rights Movement

Friday, February 27; 4:15 PM
Burling Library IIF Computer Lab

During the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., recognized the need for a means to unify the diverse communities who were participating in the protests. They turned to the Negro spirituals that had helped their ancestors survive the lash and the deprivation of slavery now to help supporters withstand the attacks and jailings as they marched for equal rights.

Researcher and soprano Randye Jones will discuss and demonstrate how this American folk music was used to bring together Northerner and Southerner, rich and poor, black and white, together in a common cause.

The program is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to bring their singing voices to lift up in song. Light refreshments will be served.

Jones, who serves on the Burling Library staff, regularly lectures and performs works discovered in her research of the spiritual. Most recently, she launched an Internet radio station, Afrocentric Voices in Classical Music, that focuses on recordings by African American singers and composers of classical vocal music.

For more information, call 3365 or email Randye Jones at jonesran@grinnell.edu.

Favorite Films Festival, January 23-25, 2009

The 2009 Favorite Films Festival will be presented from Friday, Jan. 23, through Sunday, Jan. 25. The films selected for this third annual event will be shown at the times and locations indicated below:

Foreign Film

Amelie
Fri. Jan. 23 at 4:30, 7:30 & 10:30 PM in Harris
Sat. Jan. 24 at 1:30 PM in Harris

Film Noir

The Maltese Falcon
Sat. Jan. 24 at 7:30 & 10:30 PM in Harris
Sun. Jan. 25 at 1:30 PM in Harris

Animated Film

Beauty and the Beast
Fri. Jan. 23 at 7:30 & 9:30 PM in JRC 101
Sat. Jan. 24 at 7:30 & 9:30 PM in JRC 101

The films were selected by the campus community during a survey last October. Chinatown, which received the most votes in Film Noir, was shown on campus late last semester, so The Maltese Falcon, which placed second in that category, will be shown instead.

The Favorite Films Festival is sponsored by the Grinnell College Libraries and the Student Government Association Film Committee.

What's New in the Grinnell College Libraries: Spring 2009

Lots of Databases, Just One Search: Research Pro is a tool for searching several databases at the same time. Rather than searching each database individually, you will be able to search and view all results from a single page. This type of search is known as “federated searching” or “meta-searching” and is an efficient way to explore unfamiliar databases to see which ones might be worth searching in greater depth. Look for Research Pro on our home page.

This is our first offering of a meta-search tool. Please send us your questions and comments!

Subject Guides: A New Look and New Features. Locate sources for your next research project quickly using our new subject guides. From each subject guide page, you can now browse a list of databases and reference books directly related to your subject; search for books in the Library catalog, WorldCat, and Google Books; search for a journal; and chat with a librarian using IM. Look for Get Help With Research -- Subject Guides on the library home page.

Put the Library in Your Web Browser with LibX: LibX is a toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer that gives you direct access to library resources without going to the library Web site. You can search the library catalog, WorldCat, Journal Finder, and CRL right from the toolbar; drag and drop article citations onto the toolbar to locate a full-text copy automatically; go from a book’s page on Amazon.com to searching the library catalog for that book with just one click; and much more. Look for LibX on our home page.

Favorite Films Festival: The 2009 Favorite Films Festival is scheduled for January 23-25. Watch for announcements of locations and times. The festival is sponsored by the Grinnell College Libraries and the Student Government Association Film Committee. We'll have films in the following categories, including top vote-getters based on votes from 274 participants:

* Film Noir (first place selection: The Maltese Falcon)
* Foreign Film (first place: Amelie)
* Animated Film (first place: Beauty and the Beast)

See the complete list of films in Burling Library's Listening Room and on the festival blog at PioneerWeb.

New Furnishings in Burling: We continue the modest renewal to Burling's interior that started in the summer of 2007. Look for some new lamps in the center "living room" and in the Current Periodicals reading area, which are modeled after original designs created by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the Forum in 1964. Skidmore was also the architect for Burling Library in 1959.

We continue to offer complimentary hot water and tea, now located on an attractive "tea cart" in Current Periodicals. And don't forget about the vending machine for cold drinks (basement level), white boards (level 1), and laptop tables (level 2).

Looking Ahead: Self-study. The Libraries are engaged in a self study to identify our strengths, our weaknesses, and our key directions for the next several years. We'll release our report to the campus community early this semester for your comments, and host a team of external reviewers who will meet with students, faculty, and staff to prepare their own report of assessment and recommendations. We look forward to hearing from you!

New Listening Room Hours

In response to patron requests, the Listening Room will change its regular Friday and Saturday hours. Starting this spring term, the room will be open on Fridays from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. This will provide two extra hours of service on those evenings for patrons to have access to the Libraries’ video and CD collections housed in the Listening Room.