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!