Video Streaming Services Trials Have Begun

The Libraries have arranged a 30-day trial of two video streaming services to ascertain whether their variety of videos and their functionality would prove useful in fulfilling some the campus’ wide range of video streaming needs.

Films on Demand

Films On Demand is a streaming video platform that allows incorporation of educational programs from Films Media Group into content management systems, online lesson plans, distance learning courseware, etc. Video subject areas are: humanities & social sciences, business & economics, science & mathematics, health & medicine, technical education, family & consumer sciences, careers & job search, and guidance & counseling.

This service can be reached by going to the URL below:

http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?cid=1637&aid=4931

From the home page, you may click on the “User Log In” button at the top of the display to create and access your personal account. You will need this to set up playlists, etc. There are a variety of links on each page with instructions on how to use the service.

Naxos Video Library

The Naxos Video Library is a performing arts video library with over 300 operas, ballets, documentaries, live concerts, and musical tours of historic places. It includes the Naxos DVD label, Opus Arte, Arthaus, Dacapo, EuroArts, among others and is continuously updated to offer the best selection of performing arts videos.

This service can be reached by going to the URL below:

http://grinnell.naxosvideolibrary.com

Patrons may access either service from any campus computer.

Please share your opinion of the service(s) you test. It would be very helpful if you let us know which service you tested, what type(s) of features you tried, what experiences you had, what successes or difficulties you had, and how much use you believe you’d make of the service, if we subscribe. Of course, please let us know whether you would recommend that the Libraries subscribe to the service and share any other comments you feel are relevant.

The trial period for Films on Demand ends March 9th; Naxos Video Library’s test period ends March 15th.

Inquiries or comments may be addressed to Randye Jones at jonesran@grinnell.edu or 269-3365.

2010 Favorite Films Festival This Weekend, January 29-31, 2010

The 4th Annual Favorite Films Festival will be held at Harris Center Cinema on the Grinnell College campus on Friday through Sunday, Jan. 29-31. The days and times:

Fri. 1/29:
4:30 p.m. Pan's Labyrinth
7:30 p.m. The Shining
10:30 p.m. Blazing Saddles

Sat. 1/30:
1:30 p.m. Blazing Saddles
7:30 p.m. Pan's Labyrinth
10:30 p.m. The Shining

Sun. 1/31:
1:30 p.m. Pan's Labyrinth

Showings are free and open to the public.

The films were selected by the college community as their favorite Western, Science fiction, and Horror films.

The festival is co-sponsored by the Grinnell College Libraries and the Student Government Association Films Committee.

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.

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.

Monthly Movie Recommendations Available

Each month, the Listening Room and AV Center offer a list of films from their collections based on a specific theme of interest to patrons. This month, the list concentrates on movies rated best by the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), from The Godfather (no. 1) to The Departed (no. 43).

Lists are posted in the Listening Room and in the Movie Browser available in the Listening Room and AV Center. Films listed may be checked out by the college community for the normal one-week loan period.

Past lists have featured dance in honor of the college’s Winter Waltz, holidays like Halloween and Valentines’ Day, and events-based themes such as Black History Month, politics and sports.

Patrons may suggest upcoming themes by contacting the Listening Room supervisor at 3365 or jonesran@grinnell.edu.