Banned Books Week: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Freedom to Read

Banned Books Week this year will run from September 30 - October 6.  From the American Library Association:

"Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Typically held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society."
 

Check out the displays and most frequently challenged book lists throughout the library and take home a challenged book today!

Hewes Library Election 2012 Guide

In anticipation of the upcoming general election on November 6, 2012, Hewes Library created an Election 2012 Research Guide.  The guide provides you with links to information to make an informed decision.  You can:

-Learn more about the candidates & issues
-Follow the latest election news
-Check the facts on candidate statements
-View videos from the campaigns
-Discover the history of the electoral process
-Media election coverage

New ScotsRead Titles

The following books have recently arrived and added to the ScotsRead Collection:

• Low Pressure by Sandra Brown
• Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee: how a founding father and his slave James Hemmings introduced French cuisine to America by Thomas Craughwell
• The Lincoln Conspiracy: A Novel by Timothy O'Brien
• The Unfaithful Queen: A Novel of Henry VIII's Fifth Wife by Carolly Erickson
• The Richest Women in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach

Database of the Month: A-Z Maps

Database of the Month: A-Z Maps

As promised, this blog will take a look at some of the lesser known databases subscribed to by Monmouth College.  So why not start at the beginning with A-Z Maps?  This contains exactly what the title suggests, over 145,000 maps.  You name it and this database has a map of it: it contains antique maps and modern maps of countries and states, maps of climate, earthquakes, the environment, the holy land, hurricanes, NASA maps, tree and bird distribution maps, volcano and weather maps and many other types of information presented in map format.  There are maps of both large and small geographic regions in the database.  There are even maps of imaginary places.  For instance, there are several antique maps of the holy land that depict imaginary images of the city of Jerusalem and of places like Solomon’s temple that no longer existed at the time the original maps were drawn. 

There are different views of maps; rectangular, oval, round and hand drawn.  The maps come in several format options and can be printed, saved or downloaded for further use.  If you are new to the collection a very useful feature is the online demo found at the top of the A-Z homepage.  The online demos are a voiced slide presentation that explains how to use the different map collections and gives instructions for importing the maps into Power Point presentations.

Some maps (especially those from NASA) require Google Earth images in order to view the map data.  If you are using any of the NASA maps please be patient as it takes some time to download Google Earth images and for the program to launch.  Many of the NASA maps have attached data sets and first time users would be wise to view the explanatory material before using these maps. 

There are also various glossaries which explain terms found on the different maps that are specific to the topic illustrated.  Many of these terms are ones you may be unfamiliar with such as “brontophobia” (weather) “hornito” (volcanology or volcanoes) and “moho” (earthquakes).  Most of the definitions have images illustrating the terms.

What should you use this database for?  If you need a map of a place or to illustrate climate, weather or some other geological/geographic topic for a paper or a presentation, use this database.  The maps are easily organized and it is not hard to find one that illustrates the information you wish to discuss.  For instance, the maps of Illinois section contains many outline maps both blank and those containing physical or political features (counties, voting districts, etc.) suitable for use in a paper or presentation.

Access to databases is limited to the current students, staff, and faculty of Monmouth College.

Research Tip: Off Campus Database Access

All of the databases provided by Hewes Library can be accessed from off campus. To do so, follow these directions:

• Select the database you wish to use off campus. (You must select it from the library's webpage instead of doing a web search for it.)
• You wil be prompted at a MC login screen to enter your username and password. Enter your MC username and password - which is the same one you use to access your MC email.
• Once logged in, you can use the resource as if you were on campus.

New Mobile Whiteboards

Throughout the library you will notice some new additions for the school year: mobile whiteboards!

Several whiteboards will be floating around the library for student use.  Feel free to move them around to areas where you will need them.  Markers and erasers are attached to each whiteboard. 

Coming Soon: Banned Books Week

Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempting bannings of books across the United States - from the American Library Association.

Look for the Banned Book Week displays and most challenged list in the library soon!

Research Tip: Course Reserves

What are they?  Where are they? 

Course Reserves are library materials that check out for two hours and can only be used within the library building.  They are available at the Circulation Desk and you'll need your student ID card to check out materials.

How can I find them?  Does my professor have any course reserves?

You can find course reserves using the syllabus provided to you by your professors, or you can view the Searchable Course Reserves List in the Hewes Library Catalog.  You can search by class, professor, or department.

New Items at Hewes Library

New items are added to the Hewes Library Collection on a continual basis. Recent titles have included:

• Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Music Quickens Time by Daniel Barenboim
• Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
• Euler: The Master of Us All by William Dunham
• Bullied by Carrie Goldman
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
• Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
• There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz
• Fisherman of the Island Sea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Behind the Backlash:Muslim Americans After 9/11 by Lori Peek

On Display: Back to School

Currently on display in the East Lobby display cases is a selection of Back to School items from the Monmouth College Bookstore as well as information about library services.  Items will remain on display for a few more weeks.

 

Our next display will featured Banned Books Week later in September.

Feature: Treasures of the Collection

Treasures of the Collection          

This blog will take a look at some of the more unusual items and collections found in Hewes Library.  When Monmouth College was founded in 1853, many colleges and universities had a room known as a “cabinet” to display items that could be used in the study of various subjects.   Monmouth College’s cabinet was formed in 1863 when a collection of geological specimens was obtained from the state of Illinois, followed by a collection of various materials gathered in Egypt, Syria and Palestine by James Barnett in the course of his work as a missionary.  This collection was added to over the years with material from the local area and foreign regions.  Much of the material was contributed by former students who became Presbyterian missionaries in places like China, India and the Middle East, but it disappeared by the early 20^th century.  While Monmouth College no longer has a Cabinet of unusual objects on display for the purposes of study, we still have many interesting and unusual objects and collections ranging from archaeological treasures to some rare and unusual books about Japan.  This blog will take a look at some of these unusual items and collections that are found in the library.

Today the item of interest is the cast of the Canopus (or Tanis) Stone found on the second floor of the library next to the archives.  This stone was found in Egypt in 1866.  It is similar to its more famous cousin the Rosetta Stone in that the inscriptions found on it were in three languages, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic (a shorthand form of ancient Egyptian) and ancient Greek.  Because Greek could be read but ancient Egyptian could not, the Rosetta and Canopus stones were keys used in deciphering the language.  But how did a cast of this stone come to be at Monmouth College?  Well, in 1871 Dr. Gulian Lansing, a Presbyterian minister based in Egypt who had been with the German expedition that found it, went to the ruler of Egypt and requested a copy of the stone.  The Pasha gave permission for three copies to be made, two for museums in Berlin and London and one for Monmouth College, from which Dr. Lansing had received an honorary degree.  This interesting curiosity was lost for a number of years until it was recognized by a professor in the1950’s when pieces of it were shown to him by a college custodian.  In 1997 it was put on display in the library where it can be seen today.  You can read more about the stone’s interesting history on the signs accompanying the display or in the book “A thousand hearts devotion, a history of Monmouth College”.

Next time, we’ll take a look at one of the more recent donations to the collection.

Research Tip: Learn more about your Library Accounts

Want to learn more about your Library User Accounts?  Each Monmouth College students, staff, or faculty member has two Hewes Library accounts. 

1. Library / I-Share Account: Allows patrons to renew items currently checked out and to place requests for books through the I-Share Catalog.  You can also maintain a list of favorites in the system.
2. ILLiad Account: Allows patrons to place interlibrary loan requests for articles and print materials that are not available in the I-Share catalog.  Electronically received interlibrary loans requests can also be retreived in a patron's ILLiad account.

Learn more abou the differences between the two accounts and how to locate your usename and passwords for each account.

Hewes Library selected as ACRL CLS Website of the Month

The College Libraries Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, has selected the Hewes Library website as the CLS Website of the Month for September 2012.  The announcements were made on their website and Facebook Page this week. 

From all of us at Hewes Library, our thanks to the College Libraries Section for this honor!

New ScotsRead Titles

The following ScotsRead popular reading titles have just arrived.  They are available on the main floor, near the front study tables.

• Garment of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie King
• Breed by Chase Novak
• The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santo
• The Tombs by Clive Cussler
• The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Research Tip: Research Process Guide

The Research Processs guide, which is accessible from the Research Process tab on the library's homepage, will walk students through the steps required to complete a sucessful research project or paper.


You will find information on:

• Developing a Topic
• Selecting a Topic
• Develop Research Questions
• Identify Keywords
• Find Background Information
• Refine a Topic
• Locating Information
• Find Books
• Find Videos
• Find Articles
• Find Websites
• Search Strategies
• Evaluating Information
• Evaluate Sources
• Primary v Secondary Sources
• Types of Periodicals
• Using Information Correctly
• Notetaking
• Paraphrasing
• Legal/Ethical Information Issues
• Plagiarism
• Citation Styles
• Works Cited Examples
• Copyright

New Feature: Database of the Month

Database of the Month

A new feature at Hewes Library, each month this blog will describe one of the lesser known databases found at Monmouth College. But first we’ll give a general overview of our databases. Monmouth College subscribes to about 100 online databases, covering a variety of subjects ranging from A-Z Maps online to World Cat, a world-wide listing of library materials.  Several of the largest databases subscribed to by Hewes are what is known as aggregator databases that contain materials covering multiple subject areas.  Access to these most-used databases can be found on the library’s home page in the box in the center of the home page.  Included among these databases are Academic Search Premier (ASP), JSTOR, a general Reference database (Credo Reference), the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and a world news digest (Facts on File).  The search box is a convenient one-stop shop where these major databases can be searched as well as the library’s catalog of books and a listing of all of our magazines and journals (both print and online).

In addition to these major reference sources, Hewes subscribes to many other databases of a more specialized nature.  For easy reference, there is an A-Z listing of all of our subscribed databases.  But if you know the subject area you need to research, Hewes also has a list of our databases grouped by subject.  

 

Next month, this column will take a closer look at one of our more specialized databases.

 

Access to databases is limited to the current students, staff, and faculty of Monmouth College.

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