White Library

NY Times Best Illustrated Books of 2009

2009-11-23T15:42:00.005-05:00

The New York Times just released their annual Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2009. Check out the slideshow to see which 10 they picked! I think my favorite is "White Noise" by David A. Carter (pictured). It is rare that pop-up books receive much acclaim. One can never get too much of a good pop-up book.

Reference Librarian on Jimmy Kimmel Live

2009-11-12T15:11:00.002-05:00

If you are not a late night tv watcher you probably missed it, but White Library's very own Reference Librarian, Marry Kelly, was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night promoting her blog, "Awful Library Books." You can check it out on Hulu. Her segment starts at 26:41 and runs about 5 minutes.

E-books have arrived.

2009-11-09T18:27:00.007-05:00

As you have been searching the SAU library catalog you may have noticed "E-books" in place of call numbers. Do not fear the E-books. We have gradually been adding more and more electronic books throughout 2009. Just click on the title of the book, then click on E-book, and follow it from the library catalog to the electronic version of the book.

You are able to flip through each page as if you were looking at the physical copy of the book itself. You can even search the entire contents of the books of keywords or phrases. We recently added 41 nursing books to our E-book collection.

Fall Break is almost here!

2009-10-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

This Friday there are no classes on main campus for Fall Break. The library will still be open, but the hours are slightly different. There are no reference desk hours on Friday and Saturday. The hours for the weekend are:

Fri, Oct 23 -- 9am-5pm. Computer lab open until 9pm.

Sat, Oct 24 -- 1pm-5pm. Computer lab open until 9pm.

Sun, Oct 25 -- 5pm-11pm. Computer lab open 1pm-2am.

Have a great Fall Break. It is a good weekend to take a break from studying if you have been working hard. If you have not been working hard, it is a great time to try to get caught up.

Another Abstract Database

2009-10-20T13:59:00.009-04:00

The library has added a new database titled, "ComAbstracts." ComAbstracts is a database of article abstracts, books, bibliographic records, and other sources of relevance to researchers, scholars, and students interested in fields related to human communication studies. A title list of all the publications in the ComAbstracts database can be viewed on their website.

You might be asking yourself, "What is an abstract?" According to the Duke University Writing Studio, "An abstract is a brief digest that summarizes the essential information of an article. Abstracts often help readers decide whether to read the article." An abstract does not provide access to the full article (full-text).

Your next question might be why would I take the time to look for an article I can't view immediately? The short answer is because you can perform a more comprehensive search of communication literature than.

Let's say you found an article in ComAbstracts and would like to be able to gain access to the entire article. How would one go about doing this? First, go the SAU Journal list on the library homepage. The SAU Journal List allows you to search the title of a Journal and will tell you if we have "full-text" access to that journal along with where you can access it. If we do not have access to that journal, send an email with the article information to sauill@arbor.edu or saulibrary@gmail.com and we will try to get the article for you from another library.

More Social Work

2009-10-15T14:48:00.002-04:00

In addition to the recently purchased “Social Work Abstracts”, the library has also recently purchased online access to the “Encyclopedia of Social Work.” Both can also be accessed via the “article databases” page from the Library website.

While we own the print version of the to the Encyclopedia of Social Work in the reference section of the library, having access to the online edition will give greater access to this information for off-campus students.

New Database - Social Work Abstracts

2009-09-29T12:19:00.003-04:00

The library just gained access to this new database, Social Work Abstracts. You'll note the word "abstract" in the title. This is not a database that has full-text access to the articles you will find, but it reviews over 500 U.S. and international journals and publishes approximately 900 abstracts each quarter. You can search Social Work Abstracts going back all the way to 1960.

If you find an article in Social Work Abstracts that you would like to view in its entirety, you can search for the title of the journal in the SAU journal list to see if we have full-text access to the journal in another database or a print copy. If you find that we do not have access to that journal, send an email with the article information to sauill@arbor.edu or saulibrary@gmail.com and we will try to get the article for you from another library.

On Sabbatical

2009-09-23T17:31:00.002-04:00

If you have been to the library this fall and have noticed things are a bit different; there is something just "not right" about the library it is because we are missing our Reference and Public Services Librarian, Karen Parsons.

Karen is on sabbatical this semester and is in Burundi volunteering with Hope Africa University where she will be helping with the library and training librarians. She will there until December and return to SAU january 2010. If you want to keep up with Karen while she in Burundi, you can follow her blog.

Helping us at the library this Fall in Karen's abscence in Reference Librarian, Mary Kelly. Mary comes to us from the Salem-South Lyon District Library where she is the Adult & Teen Librarian. In addition to her duties at Salem-South Lyon District Library and at SAU, Mary maintains two blogs, The Practical Librarian and an Awful Library Books. She was recently interview by Michigan Public Radio about the Awful Library Books blog. When you see Mary at the reference desk, please welcome her to Spring Arbor.

2009-09-23T08:33:00.002-04:00

Today is Arbor Games Day on campus. If you are at your class and are wondering why no one else is, check out the Arbor Games schedule below. Arbor Games festivities start at the oak tree at 2:30. Games begin at DeCan field at 3pm.

Arbor Games Day Schedule

Wednesday, September 23

Current blocks	Arbor Games schedule
7:50 – 8:50	7:50 – 8:40
9:00 – 10:00	8:50 – 9:40
10:10 – 11:00 (Chapel)
11:10 – 12:10	9:50 – 10:40
12:20 – 1:20	10:50 – 11:40
1:30 – 2:30	11:50 – 12:40
2:40 – 3:40	12:50 – 1:40
3:50 – 4:50	1:50 – 2:40

Welcome back!

2009-09-02T14:55:00.002-04:00

Welcome back to school to our on-campus students. Athletes are already on campus, as are stduent leaders. New students will be moving in on Monday, Sept 7th and classes begin on Sept. 10th.

And, a welcome back to the library blog! I have not posted since the Spring semester. A short explanation for the long lay-off. We decided to re-design the library website and I thought I'd hold off until the new site was up and running. Well, what I thought would happened in a few months is going to stretch to at least 3-4 more. We have an tentative launch date of January 2010. We'll see how things go.

-- robbie bolton

Swine Flu (I mean, H1N1 virus)

2009-04-30T17:00:00.006-04:00

With the recent media attention given the Swine Flu, Ebsco Publishing through one of their databases, DynaMed has made information on the Swine Flu freely available. You

can access this information here: http://hldemo.ebscohost.com/DynaMed-SwineFlu/

"DynaMed is a point-of-care reference resource designed to provide

clinicians with the best available evidence to support clinical

decision-making. DynaMed is part of the suite of medical products owned and provided by EBSCO Publishing and is updated daily by monitoring medical literature sources"

--Robbie Bolton

Magnets and Stickers!

2009-04-22T18:34:00.003-04:00

Recently, the Teacher Education Workroom purchased the equipment to make stickers and magnets. Amazingly, the cost is only $1 per 8.5 x 11 sheet of magnets or stickers. We are probably losing money on this, but the cost will remain only $1 per sheet for the remainder of the school year and the summer. In all liklihood, stickers and magnets will see a slight increase in cost for to start the Fall of '09. The point: make your magnets and stickers now before prices increase in the Fall!

The Teacher Education Workroom is open Monday to Thursday 10am-7pm and Friday 10am-5pm. A student worker is always available to assist you with using the tools and materials in the workroom.

-- Robbie Bolton

Spring Break

2009-03-11T16:12:00.003-04:00

Main campus will be on spring break next week. March 14-March22. However, the library will still be open. Here are the hours over spring break.

Fri, March 13 7:45am-5pm -- Lab is not open after 5pm.

Sat, March 14 - Sun, March 15 -- Library/lab closed.

Mon, March 16 - Fri, March 20 -- Library/lab open 9am-5pm.

Sat, March 21 -- Library/lab closed.

Sun, March 22 -- Library resumes normal hours. Library open 5pm-11pm. Lab open 1pm-2am

-- Robbie Bolton

Homeland Security Digital Library

2009-03-06T09:25:00.006-05:00

The library now has access to this databse. http://www.hsdl.org A link to on the Library database page has not been added yet, but will be soon. Here is a short description from their website about the information available here.

"The Homeland Security Digital Library is composed of homeland security related documents collected from a wide variety of sources. These include federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, professional organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, and international governing bodies. Resources are carefully selected and evaluated by a team of librarians and subject-matter specialists."

-- Robbie Bolton

The Deep Web!!!

2009-02-27T10:17:00.006-05:00

If you have sat through a library instruction session in one of your classes recently, you have probably heard one of the librarians refer to content available in online databases as the "Deep Web." Recently, the New York Times published an article about the "Deep Web." The article discusses the different technology companies that are trying to index the invisible side of the web not available to popular search engines.

-- Robbie Bolton

Focus: Tues, Feb 24 - Wed, Feb 25

2009-02-20T14:23:00.006-05:00

SAU sets aside one day every Spring semester for our community of learners to consider a current topic of interest to the contemporary world. The title of this year's Focus series is, "The Future of Faith." The main speaker for the series in author/speaker Brian McLaren. McLaren is the author of many books including, "A New Kind of Christian", "A Generous Orthodoxy", "Everything Must Change", and most recently, "Finding Our Way Again." Time magazine named McLaren one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in 2007.

White Library is open during the Focus Series, but we encourage students to attend to all scheduled Focus Series events.

Focus 2009 schedule

Tuesday, Feb. 24

5:00 p.m. - dinner with Brian McLaren
7:00 p.m. - Keynote address by Brian McLaren
Spring Arbor Free Methodist Church

Wednesday, Feb. 25

8:00 a.m. - Workshops – various speakers will speak at locations across campus; check back for updated information
9:00 a.m. - Workshops – various speakers will speak at locations across campus; check back for updated information
10:15 a.m. - David Kinnaman presents "The Future of Faith”
SAFMC
1:30 p.m. - Kevin DeYoung presents "Ask Not What You Can Do For God: A Critique of Emergent Theology"
White Auditorium
2:45 p.m. - David Kinnaman presents "Measuring Faith with Numbers"
White Auditorium
3:45 p.m. - Cookie Coffee Chat
Location: TBA

-- Robbie Bolton

Trial access to Twayne Authors database

2009-02-13T16:20:00.006-05:00

Check out Twayne's Authors Online and let us know how you like it. The trial will be active until March 12th.

Twayne’s Authors Online includes more than 600 books from the following

acclaimed Twayne Author series: Twayne’s World Authors, Twayne’s English Authors, and Twayne’s U.S. Authors. Covering authors universally studied in high schools

and colleges, Twayne’s Authors Online is the ideal starting point for research papers on works and figures, special projects, and presentations. Students can quickly find targeted results by searching for a specific author or

exploring thematic and chronological topics.

--Robbie Bolton

Welcome

2009-02-12T22:06:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the first posting of the White Library blog at Spring Arbor University!

My name is Robbie Bolton, and I am the new Education Librarian at Spring Arbor University. In 1998, I graduated from Spring Arbor College with a degree in History and Education. I recently completed a Master's of Science in Information degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. For the past year and a half I served the White Library as an adjunct Reference Librarian and prior to joining the Library faculty full time this January, I worked for 7 years at SAU in Residence Life in Ormston Hall.

As the Education Librarian, I hope to provide quality library service to students and faculty in the School of Education. I also serve as library liaison to the following departments: Communication, HHPR, Nursing, Social Work, and Sociology.

I will be adding library news and information to this blog throughout the semester. Check back often to see what is happening at the White Library!

--Robbie Bolton, Education Librarian