On Tuesday, Dec. 1, we had a total of 103 students in the library between 9 p.m. and midnight, with 45 here from 9:00 – 10:00. Obviously, this is a record for this time of night since this is the first year we have been open so late on a regular basis. However, this may be the most people we’ve ever had in here at one time. Looks like some people are going to knock their finals out of the park!

And for the record, we love you guys too. ♥ We’re still open until midnight through exam week, closing at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10. Come in and see us!

The Library is closing at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, November 24 for the Thanksgiving holidays.  We’ll reopen at 8:00 am on Monday, November 30.  If you need articles and e-books while we are closed, search via the library website http://www.twcnet.edu/library  .  A wealth of articles and information is available via the Tennessee Electronic Library http://tntel.tnsos.org/.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember: to log on to databases from off campus, your last name and your 13 digit barcode number from your student ID are needed.

Click here for a list of books we added to WorldCat in October, 2009.

http://twclibrary.worldcat.org/libraries/2782/recentitems?&fm=all&se=ts&sd=asc&qt=sort_ts_asc

The Lucky Child:  A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Thomas Buergenthal; foreword by Elie Wiesel.  Little, Brown: 2009.

D 810.C4 B84 2009

J. Adams

We find that our couches are very popular.  They are also very comfortable, it seems!  Anyone know who this sleepy TWC student is?

Nov. 10 update:  Sarah Torbett won the contest to name those feet.  They belong to Alex Whitlock, a student assistant at the library.  Congratulations, Sarah, on your new copy of Sara Paretsky’s Hardball.

A Red-shouldered Hawk watched the sunrise from this perch atop the library’s weathervane today.

J. Adams

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,’ I said, `art sure no craven.
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
 

from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Online Chat- Chat up the library on the new online chat reference box.  Right now you can ask questions 4 nights a week between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm Monday through Thursday by going to our website and clicking on “Contact Us” or on the BookWise Blog.

 What is WorldCat?- Just underneath the catalog search box on our website is a WorldCat button.  WorldCat is a catalog of all the books and other things (DVD, audio, articles, internet resources) in libraries all over the world.  Do a search and first you’ll see what TWC has, even the call numbers and whether they are checked out.  Further down the list you’ll see what other libraries have on your topic.  You can limit to just books or just visual material, etc.  You can submit an Interlibrary Loan request directly from WorldCat.  Create your own account, save lists, create tags, write reviews… Use it as an alternative to our regular online catalog and tell us how you like it (note the color book jackets!).

 Better World Books- The library is a member of Better World Books (BWB), an online book company which resells used books and contributes funds to global literacy, plus saves discarded books from landfills.  More info is on our blog, including BWB’s opportunities for student service learning projects and 10% off when TWC students and staff shop BWB.

 This is Open Access Week, highlighting the growing international movement to make peer-reviewed research articles available for free online, bypassing expensive publishers.  Read more about it here and check out DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) PubMed Central, Public Library of Science and Highwire Press as examples of open access journals and archives.

J. Adams

The Merner Pfeiffer Library has joined Better World Books, a company which resells used books and contributes funds to global literacy, plus saves books from landfills. Our membership will help us on several levels:

-The library can ship discards to BWB for free and they will resell, donate, or recycle the books.

-Everyone on campus can shop BWB’s online bookstore at http://www.betterworld.com
and get 10% off using this coupon code: RUF09 (that is zero9)

-If any of our discards are sold, proceeds are given to our chosen charity, the National Center for Family Literacy www.famlit.org

-Students can run a book drive on campus for a service project through BWB’s Reuse First for Students program.

BWB has already raised over $7 million for global literacy and has saved over 29 million books from landfills.

Here is a YouTube clip of a CNN story about BWB!
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Julie Adams

These “dangerous” books in a cage illustrate what happens when books are banned:  our freedoms are curtailed.  Celebrate Banned Books Week, September 26 – October 3, 2009 by viewing this exhibit of books people have tried to keep others from reading.

Some examples:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

1984 by George Orwell

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Change We Can Believe In by Barack Obama

Thanks to Brenda Jaquish for this riveting display.

Choose one research topic below.  Write up your search results as a journal entry and send to your TWC 101 teacher per his/her instructions.

The Beatles’ remastered cds

The H1N1 pandemic

Michael Jackson’s legacy

Vampires in literature

Psychology of terrorism

Sports nutrition

Bring up the library’s website.  Use the library’s online catalog or WorldCat to identify one book on your topic.  Write down the author, title, and call number.  If you choose an e-book, there won’t be a call number.

Click on Research Guides by Subject and choose the research guide that fits your topic.  Which research guide did you choose?

Choose a database in your research guide that looks like it might have journal articles about your topic.  Which database did you choose and why?

Use that database to locate a journal article about your topic.  Write down the article’s author, title, the journal title, volume, date and pages.

Choose a website from those on the same research guide that looks like it might have information on your topic.  Visit that website and evaluate it for currency, credibility and relevance.  See the blog post Evaluating Websites for help.

Bonus question:  Why would you use library databases such as Academic OneFile, JSTOR, or PsycInfo to find articles for a college assignment instead of using an internet search engine such as Google?