Connections
From the Libraries of The Claremont CollegesVolume 18 Issue 1 Winter 2008
Contents
Featured Articles
Director’s Column
3 Collaboration for Learning &
Teaching in Claremont
by Bonnie Clemens
ccdl Update
5 Senior Theses from The Claremont Colleges
by Allegra Gonzalez
Faculty Perspectives
Undergraduates Using Special Collections 6 A perspective from Glenn Shimshaw, Scripps College 7 A perspective from Andre Wakefield, Pitzer College
From Special Collections
8 Edward John Trelawny Collection
by Carrie Marsh
12 Teaching, Learning, & Library Researchby Gale Burrow
18 Discovery & Access Tools in the Libraries
by John McDonald
Departments
11 Exhibits 14 Meet Your Librarians 15 New Staff at the Libraries 16 What’s New at the Libraries 17 Claremont Discourse
20 New & Trial Databases
Did You Know? DVDs!
Do you need films for your courses? The Libraries have over 2,000 films on dvd and vhs that you may show in class, place on reserve for viewing by individuals, or check out for personal viewing. If you need a film we don’t have for one of your courses, contact Meg Garrett, Media Studies Librarian, meg.garrett@libraries.claremont.edu. d
Connections is published twice each year for The Claremont Colleges community by the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges: Honnold/ Mudd, Denison, Seeley G. Mudd, and Sprague which are part of the Claremont University Consortium.
About the cover: Photo from the January 2008 faculty/librarian workshop (left), see page 12 for more. Detail from Aristophanes’ The Lysistrata illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley (center), see page 6 for more. Detail from Georgius Agricola’s De Re Metallica (right), see page 7 for more. These images are also available from the online version of Connections at libraries.claremont.edu/connections.
Printed by the Copy Center, Honnold/Mudd Library. © Claremont University Consortium 2007–2008. All rights reserved.
Connections Staff:
Gale Burrow, editor gale.burrow@libraries.claremont.edu Carrie Marsh, editor carrie.marsh@libraries.claremont.edu Michael D. Emery, editor & designer michael.emery@libraries.claremont.edu
Director’s Column
Collaboration for Learning
& Teaching in Claremont
by Bonnie Clemens
D
uring the past two years, much of my time and energy has been concentrated on library planning related to the potential renovation of buildings and to the Libraries’ transition to an increasingly digital world. As this planning goes forward with determining which programs are important to place in a central library facility, this is a good time to reflect on what I believe is the primary purpose of the Libraries. This purpose—enhancing learning, Last year, librarians and teaching, and research—is best accomplished through our work with faculty. other staff taught more than The importance of partnerships and collaboration is clearly stated in our Mis280 classes that included sion and reiterated in a primary goal of the Library Planning Task Force, i.e., over 3,680 persons from all to facilitate learning and collaboration among faculty and between faculty and
seven institutions. librarians across the consortium. One of the most important ways
that the Libraries contribute to student learning is through our instructional pro
gram. Last year, librarians and other staff taught more than 280 classes that included
over 3,680 persons from all seven institutions. The greatest number of classes was
Bonnie Clemens is Director of the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges and can be reached at bonnie.clemens@ libraries.claremont. edu.
taught for the undergraduate colleges where librarians have worked hard at developing relationships with faculty teaching first-year seminar or core courses, but subject specialists are equally at ease teaching upper division and graduate classes. These classes often lead to individual or small
In Fall 2007, librarians and staff taught more than 200 classes and conducted more
than 600 research consultations.
group research consultations on library resources, services, and the research process; and librarians reported more than 400 of these appointments for last academic year. Both of these instructional activities are experiencing growth. In Fall 2007, librarians and staff taught more than 200 classes and conducted more than 600 research consultations.
While we have state-of-the art classrooms in the library for class sessions taught or co-taught by librarians, librarians are similarly active in teaching on the campuses. After all, many library resources are no longer bound by physical buildings. Most digital resources, for example, can be accessed from any location with an internet connection and can often be linked through your Sakai course site. Many faculty members have also added librarians to their Sakai course sites as resources for students.
At the same time, within our buildings, librarians in Special Collections and Denison work with increasing numbers of faculty interested in having their students undertake fresh approaches to the study of primary materials in diverse areas ranging from 16th and 17th century science and Shakespeare to 20th century propaganda and food culture. Students
uncover evidence in traditionally rich collections such as 18th century British literature, 19th century French fashion, and contemporary book arts. In a related use of a primary resource, students are developing an understanding of the history of scholarship by printing on a Columbian hand press housed in
Special Collections. Information about our special collections is on our website. Selections from many of these collections as well as collections from across the colleges are being digitized for the Claremont Colleges Digital Li
brary (ccdl). These physical and digital collections provide a cornucopia of primary source materials for study and research.
An exciting new development in faculty and librarian collaboration is the workshops hosted by the Libraries. More than twenty faculty members and an equal number of librarians spent a morning in one of three workshops focused on developing course goals, understanding learning objectives, and assessing student learning. These principles were then put into practice with each faculty/librarian team designing or redesigning existing research assignments for classes being taught during the 2007-2008 academic year.
I hope that you will embrace opportunities to work with librarians and staff whether through class-specific library instruction, adding a librarian to your Sakai course sites, exploring special collections, or collaborating in other ways. John McDonald, our Assistant Director for User Services and Technology Innovation, Gale Burrow, our Coordinator of Instruction, any of our other librarian/subject specialists, and I will be delighted to talk with you about your and your students’ needs. d
ccdl Update
Senior Theses from The Claremont Colleges
by Allegra Gonzalez
F
or some time students have been able to find graduate theses and dissertations by searching the Libraries’ online catalog or the Dissertations & Theses database, asking a reference librarian, or accessing the archives in Special Collections. The opportunities for discovery and access to student research have been expanded with a recently published collection from the Claremont Colleges Digital Library (ccdl): Senior Theses from The Claremont Colleges.
This senior thesis collection offers interesting, thoughtful, and relevant research by students. Each thesis in the collection has been recommended by faculty as an outstanding example of senior work. Subjects covered in the collection include art and art history; German and Russian; language and literature; media studies; physics and astronomy; public
Allegra Gonzalez is the Metadata Librarian for the ccdl and can be reached at allegra.gonzalez@ libraries.claremont. edu.
Now students can go online to find examples of senior theses and get a jump on their
senior year preparations. . .
policy analysis; science, technology, and society; and sociology. Formats include pdf documents and QuickTime videos. Colleges represented so far are Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps.
Who might use the collection? Students, faculty, prospective students, even administrators will find the senior thesis collection in the ccdl valuable. In the past, to view an undergraduate senior thesis, a student had to go to the appropriate college department and start the quest there. Now students can go online to find examples of senior theses and get a jump on their senior year preparations by looking at what other students have produced as senior level research across the campuses. Students can use the senior theses as a way of augmenting their research or finding an example of what is expected by faculty in a particular department. Faculty can point their students to the collection for examples of effective research, good writing, and appropriate formatting. High school students and their families researching colleges can read student scholarship from the college they are considering—an excellent indicator that a particular college is the right choice for any prospective student. Administrators may choose to feature their individual college theses on the college web site.
The ccdl would welcome more theses from all the undergraduate colleges. Faculty participation is integral to the success of this collection. Send us
student theses that you think are the best ambassadors for your college, department, or program and The Claremont Colleges. Theses may be from past or current years. Do you know of theses that have won awards or were written by
students who garnered honors? Do you have theses on file in your office or department as examples of excellent student work? Please consider adding these to the collection. We look forward to hearing from you. d
Contact Pat Vince, Digital Initiatives Librarian, for more information: pat.vince@libraries.claremont.edu 909.604.0496
Faculty Perspectives
Undergraduates Using Special Collections
A perspective from
Glenn Shimshaw, Scripps College
Last Fall, for the first time, I asked Carrie Marsh, Special Collections Librarian, to introduce some of Honnold/Mudd’s special collections to students in my first-year academic writing classes. Most simply, I wanted to expose the students to some of our library’s treasures that they might not otherwise learn about during their undergraduate careers. As I had hoped, they seemed enthusiastic about putting their hands on a second folio of
Shakespeare, Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrated version of Lysistrata, and early English translations of Tartuffe. These rare editions added another dimension to the students’ learning, simultaneously making the canonical texts both more accessible and respectable to students.
Beyond this exposure to “a world of cool stuff,” as one student put it, our class visit was designed to extend the boundaries of what undergraduates often consider academic research. I
Illustration of wanted to disclose possibilities Tartuffe, from The of looking beyond web browsing, Dramatic Works of electronic databases, and second-Molière. Rendered ary sources. And in fact, two of into English my students worked directly with by Henri Van materials they were shown during Laun. Edinburgh, the special collections session for 1875–76. Philbrick their research projects. Students Library of Theatre continued to rely predominantly History, Special on the library’s main holdings, of Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library.
course, but their visit gave them a fuller sense of professional scholarship.
To stimulate their thinking about the practical academic applications of the special collections, I asked students to write a short research proposal which would incorporate one of the items Carrie had discussed. I hope this exercise, and the excitement of their introductory session, will help them to remember that the special collections are available to them for all their research projects throughout college. d
A perspective from
Andre Wakefield, Pitzer College
I
t can be hard to convince students that the library, as a physical space, matters any more. The cyberbrary—that online world of Google Scholar, Wikipedia, YouTube, web databases, and seemingly endless digital sources—has become indispensable for everyday life. Those physical vestiges of olden days, like buildings, books, and print journals, seem more and more like an antique shop: quaint but marginal. I have had students, more than once, assure me that everything can be found somewhere on the internet. I don’t think they were kidding. What’s the point, then, of picking through the detritus of the pre-digital age?
One answer lies in Honnold/Mudd Library’s Special Collections Reading Room. I make a habit of walking my students down there—so this big white thing is the library!—sitting them down in the reading room, and having Carrie Marsh, the Special Collections Librarian, introduce the place. The effect is immediate. I think it’s the smell of the place, the hush of the room, the feel of the books. Old books smell like leather and parchment and vellum; they feel different—cooler and weightier—than your latest Stephen King paperback. When you step into Special Collections you enter a different sensory world. This leads to another, sometimes almost visceral realization: these books, these posters, this stuff is singular. I cannot find it anywhere else; it is certainly not on the web.
As a historian, that is one of the things I try to get across to my students. The past is filled with singular, particular, non-repeatable places and times. It is impossible to reproduce them, try as we may. But I like to think we can get a glimmer of former worlds, now lost forever. Walk into Special Collections some afternoon. Ask Carrie to show you one of our first-edition Agricola volumes. Open it up. Look at the miners. Notice the bits of sand under your fingers as you turn the page. Is it 450 year-old ore from some long forgotten Saxon silver mine? Probably not. But it could be.
Not everything can be found on the internet. d
From Special Collections
Edward John Trelawny Collection
Carrie Marsh is the Special Collections Librarian in Hon-nold/Mudd Library and can be reached at carrie.marsh@ libraries.claremont. edu.
by Carrie Marsh
One of the most famous English poets drowned in mysterious circumstances off the stormy coast of Italy; another died aiding the Greeks escape Ottoman domination. Present both at the cremation of Percy Bysshe Shelley on the beach in Livorno and later at the embalming of Lord Byron’s body in Messolonghi was Edward John Trelawny. Edward John Trelawny? One might well ask: How can I research and learn more about this influential and well connected adventurer and author?
Donald B. Prell has donated his extensive collection of books, articles, and manuscripts by, about, and directly relating to Edward John Trelawny (1792–1881) to the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges, housed in Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library. The core of the collection on Trelawny, author of several popular and influential works and memoirs about Byron, Shelley and other writers of mid-19th century England, is composed of more than
65 works comprising in highly dramatic more than 115 volumes terms; he confesses to Trelawny piracy, murder, and perhaps is best
known for his desertion, among memoir, Adventures of a
other outrageous Younger Son
(1831), present deeds. in the Collection in the rare first and subsequent editions, in which he relates his exploits in the British Navy in highly dramatic terms; he confesses to piracy, murder, and desertion, among other outrageous deeds. At his request, Mary Shelley, widow of Percy Bysshe Shelley, anonymously edited the manuscript of Adventures. Trelawny’s Recollections of Shelley, Byron and the Author (1858) is an important—and contested—source document about the named poets and their circle; it established Trelawny as the authority on Shelley until the mid20th century when scholars set about examining the veracity of his story.
Recent scholars have proven much of what Trelawny wrote in both Adventures and Recollections
was greatly exaggerated. His flair for the dramatic and “heroic” led Trelawny, in both looks and deeds, to fashion himself after Byron’s Corsair, a
view of himself he exploited for the rest of his life. Trelawny did achieve a close, if short, friendship with Shelley, and he was in Livorno in 1822 when Shelley was drowned, and arranged and witnessed Shelley’s cremation there. Though their relationship was often contentious and competitive, in 1824, Trelawny served with Byron in the Greek War of Independence and attended his body
when Byron died. Of particular note in the Prell Collection is a manuscript notebook of Edward Ellerker Williams dating from about 1819 – 1820. Williams, a retired military officer, was living in Switzerland with Shelley’s cousin, Thomas Medwin, when he was introduced by Medwin to Shelley. Also about this time, Trelawny joined Medwin, Williams, and Shelley, living together during those fateful days leading up to the sailing accident in which Shelley and Williams were drowned. In his notebooks Williams recorded his travels
during his stint in the Navy, then afterward on the Continent with his friends and family, and these notebooks are an important source for study of Shelley’s last days. The notebook in the Prell Col-
lection contains many sketches, botanical specimens, fragments of poems, and one particular pencil portrait that might be of Shelley. Other libraries that hold Williams’ notebooks include the British Library, the Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection at the
New York Public Library and the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford.
Donald B. Prell became interested in Trelawny as an undergraduate at ucla in 1942 when he wrote a paper about the funeral of Shelley for an English literature class. “This was my introduction to Edward John Trelawny, and during the following 64 years, I have collected everything I could find by and about him.” After serving in ww ii, Mr. Prell finished his studies at ucla, then received a C.Phil from the University of London. He led several computing companies before founding, in 1958, the first magazine devoted entirely to computers and software, Datamation. Following stints at several venture capital firms and banks, Mr. Prell now leads Prell & Associates, a consulting firm in the field of futurology.
Mr. Prell has established an endowment at cuc to benefit Special Collections in order to support access to the Prell Collection, research, and digitization. Mr. Prell’s generosity has made the Libraries the place to study Trelawny, Shelley, and their circle, and we are truly honored to carry out his desire to make the Collection available for current and future scholarship.
The Prell Collection of Edward J. Trelawny enhances the Libraries’ excellent collection of 19th century British literature in Special Collections, which holds comprehensive collections of first and rare editions of poets Shelley, Byron, Moore, Keats, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, gifts of William Clary, Edward Dean Lyman, F. Haynes Lindley, John R. Butterworth, and Eli P. Clark, to name a few donors. The Prell Collection has been accessioned into the Clary Oxford Collection, in recognition of Shelley’s time at Oxford as well as Mr. Prell’s friendship with William Clary. d
Sketch of boat by Edward Ellerker Williams. In Williams notebook.
Trelawny Collection, Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library.
Exhibits at the Libraries
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
Honnold/Mudd Library, 2nd floor January 25–May 19, 2008
Who hasn’t heard the lines, “A book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread, and Thou” quoted, often wrongly? Persian astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) was renowned in his own country and time for his scientific achievements, but he is chiefly known to English-speaking readers through the translation of a collection of his roba’iyat (“quatrains”) in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859), by the English writer Edward FitzGerald.
FitzGerald’s editions of The Rubáiyát were wildly popular in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and have remained in print ever since. Indeed, FitzGerald’s translation of Omar Khayyám’s quatrains, now considered a literary classic, is largely responsible for coloring European ideas about Persian poetry. On view with original editions of FitzGerald are other translations, finely printed editions, illustrated editions, and parodies of The Rubáiyát.
The books on view are from the Philip Corrin Collection, Honnold / Mudd Special Collections, and the John I. Perkins Collection, Denison Library. d
Mrs. Wilson’s “Beautiful Books” & Other Deluxe Artists’ Books
Madame Butterfly Unbound. Artists’ Books Collection, Denison Library, Scripps College.
Denison Library February 4–March 30, 2008
An exhibit of elegantly produced books whose format, materials and content, particularly illustration and imagery, make a visual statement. This exhibition complements a show of Artists’ Books 2000–2007 curated by Core iii students in the Clark Humanities Museum at Scripps College. d
Teaching, Learning, & Library Research
by Gale Burrow
Would you like
•
your students to base their research projects on reliable information?
your students to look beyond Google for their research?
your students to critically evaluate the information they find?
to incorporate the most up-to-date best practices to facilitate student learning in your courses?
to help your students become independent, lifelong learners?
to design assignments that promote academic integrity?
Gale Burrow is the Coordinator of Instruction for the Libraries and can be reached at gale.burrow@ libraries.claremont. edu.
More than twenty faculty who answered yes to these questions participated in the Designing & Implementing Student Research Projects for Maximum Learning workshops offered by the Libraries in partnership with Laurie Richlin, Director of the Claremont Graduate University Preparing Future Faculty & Learning Communities Program. Dr. Richlin also serves as Director of the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching - West, Executive Editor of the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, and President of the International Alliance of Teacher Scholars.
These very practical half-day workshops, offered in August 2007 and January 2008, began with a presentation and discussion led by Dr. Richlin, which focused on scholarly teaching, learning objectives, teaching methods, assignments, and assessment, including developing effective rubrics to evaluate student work. Following Dr. Richlin’s presentation and brief presentations focused on resources available from the Libraries’ Special Collections and the Claremont Colleges Digital Library, faculty worked on developing research assignments for one of their courses. Each faculty member was paired with a librarian subject specialist, who could assist in identifying library resources and services of particular relevance for the course. Faculty/librarian pairs worked together to develop innovative research assignments and to enhance the potential for student success through integration of research resources and skills throughout the course. The workshop concluded with lunch and a lively, engaging discussion about plans that had been developed during the morning.
What were some of the new ideas for collaboration that resulted from the workshops? Librarians were added as “instructors” to Sakai course sites, allowing them to post materials to those sites: basic research tips for one class, guidance for specific course assignments for another, pointers to relevant databases for another. Research instruction took place more than once during the semester at stra-tegic times in relationship to the research assignments, sometimes in the library, sometimes in the classroom. Individual undergraduate and graduate students were paired with librarian subject specialists for research guidance. Following a research instruction session in the library, students were required to meet, individually or in small groups, with their course librarian for more in-depth focus on their specific research interests.
As a mid-semester follow-up to the August workshops, faculty who had participated were asked to reply to a brief survey. Here’s what some of them said.
About the workshop:
I felt very affirmed as an instructor.
I took away from the session the importance of asking those basic questions and mapping the pedagogical goals and approaches for each course.
The simple pedagogical reminders that the workshop included were a big help. The matching of one librarian per instructor was great.
The open discussion at the end was also very informative. I enjoyed hearing about what other people are doing.
About how the workshop affected their course / teaching:
My syllabus contains an updated assignment description that has clearer grading criteria and instructions for database searches.
I really feel that this is the first time I have been able
to use the librarians to help me in my teaching.
[It helped in] focusing the assignment more clearly.
About the results for their students:
The students are… doing superior research. I feel the students are far better prepared than the last time I taught the class.
These workshops will be offered again during Summer 2008. If you would be interested in participating and if you have suggestions about when during the summer the workshops should be offered for maximum participation, please contact Gale Burrow, Coordinator of Instruction for the Libraries. d
Meet Your Librarians
Libraries Administration
John McDonald is the Assistant Director for User Services & Technology Innovation at the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges. He oversees Access Services, the Claremont Colleges Digital Library, Learning & Outreach Programs and Services, and Library Information Technology. Prior to coming to Claremont he was the Acquisitions Librarian at Caltech in Pasadena, California. He is a frequent speaker at ala Conferences and the Charleston Conference for Acquisitions & Collection Development. His research interests include bibliometric analysis of information usage, especially online journal usage and citation analysis. A published version of his most recent research on the subject appeared in the January 2007 issue of
jasist, titled “Understanding Online Journal Usage: A Statistical Analysis of Citation and Use.” He is cur
rently working towards the completion of his doctoral dissertation, which focuses on statistical analysis
of online journal usage, but more importantly, welcomed his first child, Charlotte, in December 2006. d
Librarians
Alexandra Chappell is a reference and instruction librarian at Honnold/Mudd Library, focusing on general reference and outreach, as well as library instruction for first-year students. She is interested in exploring how new technologies can be used in the library and is chair of a library committee devoted to improving the public interface of the library catalog. Alex has a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a ba in Art from Pomona College. Prior to her career as a librarian, she worked as a fine-press letterpress printer at the Yolla Bolly Press and as an editor and production coordinator for museum publications at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. d
Sam Kome came to the Libraries of The Claremont Colleges from the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science, where he worked as the Help Desk Manager. As Manager of Library Information Technology (lit) for the Libraries he leads a team of it professionals who collaborate with the Libraries staff to develop new tools and services for The Colleges community. lit is focused on an ever-improving toolset for patrons and staff including an improved catalog, new communication and collaboration capabilities, and access to large and exotic (gis, video) datasets. d
New Staff at the Libraries
Circulation Johann Ramirez is the Weekend Coordinator for Circulation Services. He is in the PhD program at cgu studying Public Policy and American Politics.
Claremont Colleges Digital LibraryFor the past year, Lisa Crane has been Digital Projects Coordinator for Honnold/Mudd’s Special Collections. In February, she moved to the ccdl, where she will be Digital Production Supervisor. She received her Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University in December 2006.
As Digital Specialist, Gabriel Jaramillo digitizes materials for the ccdl. He has worked many years in the field of photography, including working for a travel video company and for Luna Imaging.
Alain Veylit is Applications Developer for ccdl. His varied background includes serving as Curator of Rare Books for the British Library in the Early Printed Collections Department, working in systems administration at uc Riverside, and earning a PhD in Comparative Literature at ucr.
Copy CenterGaby Flores manages the Copy Center in Hon-nold/Mudd. Before joining the Libraries staff, Gaby worked in cuc Financial Services as Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to the Vice President for Financial Services and the Controller.
Interlibrary LoanAntoinette Anderson is the Borrowing Assistant in ill. She came to the Libraries from Chapman University School of Law, where she was Circulation Supervisor.
Libraries Administration
Barbara Barcinas is the Administrative Assistant
for User Services and Technology Innovation. She
came to the Libraries from Chaffey College where
she worked as the Program Assistant for the International Students’ Office. Barbara is currently
enrolled in the Business Administration Transfer
Program at Chaffey College.
Library Information Technology
Jefferson Cowart, a 2007 graduate of Pomona College,
is the Libraries’ network manager.
Peter Zacarias is the new Computer Systems Specialist for the Libraries. Before joining the Libraries staff, he worked with computer systems in a range of business environments.
Publications Coordinator Michael D. Emery, who managed digital projects for Special Collections and the ccdl for several years, moved into the position of Publications Coordinator in December. This spring he will graduate from San Jose State School of Library and Information Science.
Special CollectionsJennifer Bidwell, iris Assistant, has been appointed Special Collections Curatorial Associate. Jennifer completed her ma in History at cgu in May 2007, and her concentration was in late 20th century and environmental history.
As Digital Projects Assistant, Jamie Weber is currently digitizing the Walter P. Lindley Scrapbooks, an important source for early Los Angeles history. She is a 2007 graduate of Pitzer College, where she earned a ba with Honors in English and World Literature. d
What’s New in the Libraries
New look & functionality for Blais & for the Interlibrary Loan request form:
When you search the catalog or place an interlibrary loan request, you may notice that these web pages are a bit different from what you’re used to. For more information, contact your Librarian Subject Specialist at libraries.claremont.edu/librarians.
Presentation practice space:
If you or your students need a place to practice a PowerPoint or other type of presentation for a class, meeting, or conference, you can reserve Keck 2 in Honnold/Mudd. Reservations may be made up to three days in advance. For more information, contact Gale Burrow, gale.burrow@libraries.claremont. edu.
Food & beverage policy changes in Honnold/Mudd:
Perhaps you have already taken advantage of or heard from your students about the more relaxed food and beverage policy in Honnold/Mudd. You may now bring in beverages in most covered containers, including Starbucks coffee cups, and you may have personal size snack foods in the building.
Quiet study areas identified in Honnold/Mudd:
The 4th floor of Honnold/Mudd has been designated a quiet study area. Signs have been posted throughout the building to alert students to the availability of such a space and to remind anyone on the 4th floor that they should refrain from cell phone use and
conversation on that floor.
Lockers for short term storage:
Fifteen lockers are available in Honnold/Mudd for times when you’re working in the library, need to leave for a short while, and don’t want to have to take everything away with you. Keys for the lockers may be checked out at the Services Desk.
Meebo, for easy instant messaging to librarianchat without an account:
You can now chat with us (librarianchat) using Meebo as well as from your aim, Yahoo, msn, or GoogleTalk instant messaging accounts. Meebo allows those who don’t have an instant messaging account to chat. Look for the Meebo message window on the Ask Us page and several other pages of the
Libraries web site. d
Claremont Discourse, Spring 2008
Through the Glass Closet: The Homosexual Origins of the Far RightRobert Dawidoff, Professor of History, Claremont Graduate University
Thursday, February 21, 4:15 pm
What types of closets are there? Whether one constructs a closet as a place of respite from society’s
norms or as a cloak of those same norms, both are survival strategies. One provides freedom; the other
constriction, psychological suppression, and denial. Both have costs and both have influenced the very
society that marginalized and demonized them. In his lecture, Robert Dawidoff will preview a chapter of
his forthcoming book, The Glass Closet: A History of Solutions.
The Practical Use of History: A Panel Discussion of the Puente Hills Preserve Project Janet Farrell Brodie, Professor of History, Claremont Graduate University with cgu History Students
Wednesday, March 5, 4:15 pm
In January 2005, the Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority contracted with the
cgu History Department to provide student researched papers about the history of the Puente Hills. The
History Department believed that such a sponsored research project would be an ideal way to acquaint
the public with the Preserve while providing graduate students in the doctoral and master’s programs
with professional experience in producing local history for a sponsor. This panel will discuss the project
and the unique opportunities it presented to faculty and graduate students.
Pomona Poet/National Poet: Robert Mezey Reads from His WorksRobert Mezey, Professor Emeritus of English, Pomona College
Wednesday, March 26, 4:15 pm
Winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize the pen Poetry Award, and many other garlands, Robert Mezey is As with all Clare-
a poet of wide experience, erudition, voice and form. The topics of his poems range from Thomas Hardy mont Discourse
to Charles Starkweather to reflections on being a Jewish son. An explorer of poetic forms, he has written lectures, dates and
in blank verse, syllabics, ballads, sonnets, terza rima—even a haiku and a blues. His talents as a teacher times are subject
found a welcoming home at Pomona College from 1976 until he retired in 1999. Professor Mezey will read to change; visit
from his works and talk about the art of teaching poetry. libraries.claremont.
edu/discourse for
Embedded at Harvey Mudd College: An Anthropologist’s Ventures in Knowledge Making Practices Marianne de Laet, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Science, Technology, and Society, Harvey the latest information.
Mudd College, & Chair, Intercollegiate Program in the Study of Science, Technology and Society From more
Wednesday, April 9, 4:15 pm information about
What do an extra large ground-based astronomical observatory-in-the-making, a patent, a bottle of the Claremont
exquisite Burgundy wine, and a Harvey Mudd student have in common? As she reflects on the role an- Discourse lecture
thropology can play in a science and engineering environment, Marianne de Laet will connect these four series, contact
objects of her own scholarly research and explore how her research and teaching have been informed Adam Rosenkranz at
and transformed by her curious constituency: engineers and scientists in-the-making; “subjects” and adam.rosenkranz@
“objects” of her work. In a somewhat broader context, she will discuss Claremont’s unique Intercollegiate libraries.claremont.
Program in sts. d edu.
John McDonald is the new Assistant Director for User Services & Technology Innovation at the Libraries and can be reached at john.mcdonald@ libraries.claremont. edu.
Discovery & Access Tools in the Libraries
by John McDonald
A
cademic research libraries are in the midst Openurl resolution technology allows users to of monumental changes in how they acquire, link directly from a database record or other bib-organize, and deliver information. Advances in liographic citation directly to an available fulltext information technology have altered many of the core functions Advances in information technology have of libraries and have increased the ability of researchers to leverage altered many of the core functions of technology to access and distribute information. These changes libraries and have increased the ability of mirror how the general public has developed and honed their infor-researchers to leverage technology to access
mation usage behaviors to take full advantage of the possibilities brought about by a robust digital information environment. It has become incumbent on libraries, as information providers, to offer increased functionality in our systems and services and to otherwise enhance the user experience in every way possible.
This year’s operating plan for the Libraries addresses the need to provide high quality discovery tools, like databases, websites, and finding aids that help people identify relevant information, while seeking to improve the access tools and systems that we provide for faculty and students to get resources and services. We have named this initiative “Better Access,” with the aim of improving the existing tools and developing new ones that help our faculty and students access information. There are three major areas that the Libraries will be concentrating on for the coming year: linking to fulltext resources (Openurl resolution in library lingo), simultaneous searching of multiple resources (the official term is Metasearch or Federated Search), and enhancing the Libraries’ online catalog Blais by incorporating Web 2.0 technologies.
and distribute information.
article or explore other associated services, such as searching the web, author searching, or reference searching. We currently use Serials Solutions’ Article Linker Openurl product to create our “Get this item” button, but there are additional Openurl providers who offer a range of enhanced services to libraries. The Libraries are interested in investigating other Openurl software and how their services can fit within our overall goals as we transition from
content-based services to user-centered services. The team will identify and document institutional requirements for an Openurl resolver by documenting the current resolver’s functionality, assessing other vendor products and solutions, addressing the interoperability of those solutions with our other information resources, and testing the usability of new products.
Metasearch (also called Federated Search) software allows our users to select and search a number of databases simultaneously. It also allows us to group common resources together in search sets to provide our students and faculty with more powerful methods to identify relevant content. In addition, many metasearch products also include a number of associated software applications that provide users with advanced capabilities to monitor, manage, save, and share information. The Libraries do not currently have metasearch software deployed, so the team charged with exploring this technology will outline the search needs of our students and faculty and how current metasearch software solutions meet those needs.
Next Generation opacs integrate Web 2.0 technologies which provide users with extensive new search and browse functionality. Blais is one of our most critical resources since it is the primary description, discovery, and access point for our collections. The addition of new technologies and services within the Blais system could greatly enhance our users’ research experience. The Libraries have already released one example of a Web 2.0 technology in Blais with the debut of LibraryThing for Libraries, which provides us with “tags” for our books. Tags
Improving our users’ ability to discover information and then access it efficiently is extremely important to us.
are user-defined natural language terms applied to books, photos, music, etc., by readers themselves (not by the authors, publishers, or librarians). Tags are just one type of enhancement that libraries are utilizing to make their collections more discoverable from their catalogs. This team’s work investigating and experimenting with new and innovative technologies will help us remain on the cutting edge of user-based services for our students and faculty.
Improving our users’ ability to discover information and then access it efficiently is extremely important to us. The Better Access initiative described above will ensure that we have the most effective discovery and access tools while also providing new and novel services. The work of the three teams on Openurl resolution, Metasearch, and Next Generation opacs will provide our students and faculty with new ways to search and browse information; new ways to store, distribute, and manipulate that information; and new ways to discover related information in the most efficient ways possible. d
For more information or if you have questions or suggestions about these initiatives, please contact: Jason Price (Openurl)
jason.price@libraries.claremont.edu Sheree Fu (Metasearch) sheree.fu@libraries.claremont.edu Alex Chappell (Next Gen opac) alexandra.chappell@libraries.claremont.edu
Trial Databases
the Libraries have a subscription to these data
bases for the current academic year. If you find
any of these databases valuable for your own and
your students’ research, please contact the Resource
Development & Collections team at rdc@libraries.
claremont.edu or your librarian subject specialist.
British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries pro
vides access to a full text collection of letters, diaries,
and unpublished manuscripts written by women from
1500 to 1900. Like North American Women’s Letters
and Diaries, which the Libraries already own, this
database is an excellent source for primary documents
to support advanced research on women and women’s
issues and is valuable in all disciplines.
Current Protocols in Pharmacology and Current Protocols in Protein Science provide information on “best practices” methodologies and are updated quarterly. Constantly evolving to keep pace with the latest developments, these resources are valuable for the novice as well as the expert researcher.
New Databases
Mental Measurements Yearbook (mmy) from the Buros Institute contains reviews of psychological tests (but not the actual tests) taken from the Ninth through the Seventeenth Mental Measurements Yearbooks (1985–2007), and is updated every six months. mmy, the venerable publication that has appeared as a print
“yearbook” since 1938, allows researchers to see what reviewers have said about the reliability and validity of psychological measures before selecting a measure. A bibliography accompanies each signed review; tests have reviews from one or two professional reviewers. Reviews are available for over 2,500 tests. d
EastView Russian udb-edu provides a unique opportunity to cross-search the contents of all 31 journals of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ranging from archeology to linguistics, as well as popular literary editions, and independent scholarly publications.
International Medieval Bibliography is a truly “international” and interdisciplinary bibliography for the Middle Ages, including publications in over 30 languages, and covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for the period 400–1500. The database comprises over 300,000 articles derived from coverage of some 4,500 periodicals and 5,000 volumes of conference proceedings, essay collections, Festschriften and exhibition catalogues.
Other trial databases include Book Review Digest Plus, Psycextra, Social Science Electronic Data Library, and Socindex with Full Text. All these databases can be accessed from the Databases page on the Libraries web site and from the alphabetical list of databases. d
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