Music files @ your library

Two exciting new databases containing music files are now available on the library's Music Resources page. Smithsonian Global Sound offers selections of traditional music from more than 150 countries. The Classical Music Library offers a range of classical music from Medieval to contemporary, including choral works, symphonies, operas and avant-garde. Available at no cost to Stoxen Library patrons - check out some new sounds today!

Staff news #1

Congratulations, Public Services Librarian Eileen Kopren, this year's recipient of a Dickinson Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year award. Eileen was recognized for her years of service to Dickinson State University.

Featured here is the fall 2006 pilot project Eileen developed for faculty/librarian research collaboration.

Way to go, Eileen!

Thank you for all that you do!

Check out the great display celebrating student library workers and volunteers, keeping up with some of the myriad tasks that make Stoxen Library a great campus destination -- and one where you can find the materials you need to complete your research, too.

Thank you, Corina, for creating such an eye-catching display, and thank you to the Dickinson State University art class for the beautiful book ends.

Podcasting Legal Guide

Some of you may be considering (or already are) using podcasting in your classes. Creative Commons has just created a Podcasting Legal Guide that addresses such topics as legal issues in creating your own podcast, issues in distributing your podcast and the basic background of podcasting. They have also included several links to other helpful websites including how to podcast, search engines and directories for podcasts and other websites with legal information regarding podcasts.

End of Semester

Information regarding extended hours and end of semester and summer hours is available on the Library web page. The Stoxen Library staff wishes you the best of luck with finals. Have a great summer.

Summer reading, anyone?

Most of you are probably swamped with "end of the semester" issues at the moment. Please remember to check out the "new book" section of the library when you start contemplating your summer reading. This section of books is one of the first things you see when you enter the library.
Some suggestions are:
"Flying Through Midnight" by John Halliday (DS558.8.H36 2005)
"First Man - the Life of Neil A. Armstrong" by James Hansen (TL789.85.A75H36 2005)
"Winning" by Jack Welch (HF5386.W384 2005)
"The Painted Drum" by Louise Erdrich (PS3555.R42P35 2005)
"The Beatles" by Bob Spitz (ML421.B4567 2005)

More JSTOR!

We have added four new collections to our JSTOR content.

Biological Sciences Collection - This will include at least one hundred journals when completed at the end of 2007. Coverage in this collection offers greater depth in fields such as biodiversity, conservation, paleontology, and plant science, in addition to introducing new areas such as cell biology and zoology.

Arts & Sciences III Collection - Focused on the arts and humanities, the Arts & Sciences III Collection contains 150 titles. The collection makes available additional journals in language and literature, as well as important titles in the new fields of music, film studies, folklore, performing arts, religion, and the history of art and architecture.

Arts & Sciences IV Collection - The Arts & Sciences IV Collection will include a minimum of one hundred journals when completed at the end of 2006. The collection features titles in the disciplines of business, education, health policy, law, psychology, and public policy and administration.

Arts & Sciences Complement - The Arts & Sciences Complement allows participants to seamlessly add journals related to the core Arts & Sciences I, II, III, and IV Collections. For the Arts & Sciences Complement, journals may be focused in any of JSTOR's more than thirty arts, humanities, and social sciences disciplines. JSTOR's aim is to introduce important titles not included in earlier collections and to capture journals that cross discipline boundaries. A minimum of 150 journals will be added over five years, concluding by the end of 2008.

PsycBooks & PsycExtra

Your library now provides full text access to more content than ever from the American Psychological Association. Check out PsycBooks to find access to 600 titles from the APA + 1500 entries from the Encyclopedia of Psychology. PsycEXTRA is a "gray literature" database which supplies a wide variety of credible information in psychology, behavioral science, and health most of which is written for professionals and disseminated outside of peer-reviewed journals in documents such as newsletters, technical and annual reports, government reports, consumer brochures, and more. Links for these databases can now be accessed on the Psychology Research page.

Charles Johnson visiting campus tonight for the Heart River Writers' Circle

Award-winning author and cartoonist Dr. Charles Johnson will appear at Dickinson State University on Wednesday, April 5 at 8 p.m. in Beck Auditorium located in Klinefelter Hall as part of the Heart River Writers’ Circle. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

During his presentation, Johnson will read from and discuss “Soulcatcher and Other Stories.” In this collection of 12 short stories, Johnson presents life during the era of African-American slavery. Writing from the perspective of a dozen different individuals in American history was an interesting assignment for the experienced author, who was asked to write the stories based on the PBS series “Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery.”

“Rarely is a writer given the opportunity (like an actor) to climb into the skin of both Frederick Douglass and Martha Washington, to descend into the fetid hold of a slave ship and join a nineteenth century slave revolt, to play Jefferson’s consul to Haiti and inhabit the psyche of both a runaway slave and his pursuer,” he wrote in his preface.

Johnson, who published his first novel in 1974, gained prominence when his novel “Middle Passage” won the National Book Award in 1990. Born in Evanston, Ill., Johnson began his career as a cartoonist and saw his work published by the time he was 17 years old. His two published collections of cartoons were acclaimed for their subtle but pointed satire of race relations and their success led to “Charlie’s Pad,” a 1971 series on public television that Johnson created, co-produced and hosted.

Johnson’s presentation is co-sponsored by Dickinson State University’s Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program as part of the Heart Rivers Writers’ Circle. The Writers’ Circle is sponsored by Stoxen Library and the Dickinson State University Department of Language and Literature through the use of university fees. The Circle brings in significant contemporary writers whose work interests a wide range of readers in the west river area. The group also involves faculty members, students, and area community members in follow-up discussions of books by featured writers.

Dr. Jim McWilliams, associate professor of English at DSU and author of “Passing the Three Gates: Interviews with Charles Johnson,” will lead a follow-up discussion on Johnson’s book of short stories April 20 at 7 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at Stoxen Library.

It's National Library Week at Stoxen Library

Spring break ends

A warm welcome back to campus from the Library staff


On your way into the Library, check out the new display in the foyer, featuring the dozens of student workers who perform myriad, essential tasks at Stoxen Library.

Featured also is Mr. James Martz, volunteer in the fall of 2005. Jim Martz was a librarian at Stoxen Library from 1967-2001. He holds a Master of Library Science degree from George Peabody College, and an undergraduate degree from Dickinson State University. Thank you, Jim, for generously sharing your expertise and many decades of wisdom with your alma mater!

We are appeciative to all who work behind the scenes at Stoxen Library.

You asked for it, you got it

You asked for it – you got it! Many of you indicated that you missed our online listing of new materials available in the library. Well, it’s back. You will find it from our home page under Library Information, Services & Forms or follow this link http://www.dickinsonstate.com/lib_coldev.asp. The January listing is especially long as we are finally catching up with the backlog created by our new computer system. There’s sure to be something for everyone. Enjoy!

Award winning poet visits today's Business Policy classes

Award winning poet Ron Slate, on campus tonight for a reading (Beck, 8 p.m.) is shown here visiting Professor Debora Dragseth's Business Policy classes. His unique voice is informed by his world travels as a business executive. In more than twenty-five years in corporate business, he has been vice president of global communications for a major computer technology company and chief operating officer of a biotech startup.

New links on homepage

On the library homepage, we have added three links under the heading “More Helpful Links.” These three links are to either guides or tutorials on general research, plagiarism or copyright. Under the general research tools, there are tutorials for Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, Boolean connectors, evaluating the web, etc. There are also some general “this is how you do research” guides. The plagiarism list points to some really creative and “fun” sites that teach what is and isn’t plagiarism and how to avoid it. The copyright sites aren’t nearly as fun, but are extremely helpful if one is looking for copyright information. Although, all three categories have sites that are specific to particular universities, any of them have a wealth of helpful information. Kudos to Tyler Manolovitz (Library Evening Supervisor) for all his assistance in getting this up and running.

Loads of information, at your fingertips

Usage of Stoxen Library's many databases continues to increase, as users find scholarly information 24/7, on the library web page, for a wide variety of topics. Since July 2005, Stoxen Library's users have logged more than 48,000 searches!

Renewals without coming to the library

Want to renew materials without coming to the library? Start at the Library Homepage and click on My Library Account. You will be asked to sign-in with your DSU ID (the seven numbers on your ID…please do NOT include a W) and your password which is your last name. You will see your library card details. To renew materials (or see what you have currently checked out), click on the “loans/renew” link. Next click on the underlined number of the item you wish to renew. On the next screen, you will see the word “renew” underlined (or an error message if the material cannot be renewed). Click on this to complete the process.

Snapshots from the annual report

Did you know?

That gates counts at Stoxen Library have increased steadily since 2001?
2001-2002 110,645
2002-2003 115,367
2003-2004 128,325
2004-2005 145,863
July 2005-Dec.2005 82,058

Comparisons to peer institution's group average for gate counts per typical week was 1,837 to Stoxen Library's 3, 375.

Did you know?

That Stoxen Library checked out computer laptops to students 982 times in November 2005 alone! Other November 2005 highlights include 1,334 books and 1,174 items from the reserve collection.

How about that purchased database usage statistics continue a sharply upward trend.

Another: the Library employs 30+ federally funded student workers and four institutionally funded student workers.

Regarding gains in information literacy delivery for students, for fall 2005, representing instruction for 55 sessions

• 19 sections of Freshmen Seminar (2 lectures for each section; 376 students)
• 3 sections of Composition 120 (2 lectures for each section; 50 students)
• Science 389 (34 students)
• 2 sections of Business Communications 210 (65 students)
• 2 sections of Nursing 198 (40 students)
• 2 sections of Business Policy 485 (31 students)
• Art in the Elementary and Secondary 290 (10 students)
• Speech 110 (20 students)
• Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership (10 students)
• Volleyball players (12 students)

Scheduled for spring 2006 semester:

• 13 sections of Composition 120 (2 lectures/sessions for each section)
• 2 sections of Business Policy
• 3 sections of Freshmen Seminar (2 lectures/sessions for each section)
  
• 1 section of Freshmen Seminar for International Students (3 lectures/sessions)
  
• Sophomore Nursing students (12 students and 3 faculty)
  
• Nursing Research
  
• Business Communications (2 sections)
  
• Art in the Elementary

Exercise your brain today!

The literature these days says we should be as concerned about exercising our brains as we are exercising our bodies. So I want to point you to a fun website with over thirty “brain games.” If someone figures out how to play Reversi, please let me know! Enjoy!

How do I order something the library doesn't own? (AKA interlibrary loan/document delivery)

With the recent changes in the library's software system (no, not PeopleSoft), many patrons have questions about the current process for ordering copies, books, and other materials from other libraries.

The full instructions for this process as well as other helpful links can be found on the Library's web page under Interlibrary Loan Instructions.

Note that the "Listing of Periodical Titles" might provide access to the thousands of journals owned by Stoxen Library (print or online), and thus avoid the need for interlibrary loan.

If you wish to order a specific item, and cannot locate it either by using the "Listing of Periodical Titles" (in the case of journals) or by using ODIN (in the case of books, videos, dvds, and other types of items), use the "Blank Interlibrary Request" form as described on the Instructions page, and the library staff will determine the best possible location for obtaining the item.

All you need is love (do, do, do, do, do)

February's special display is, you guessed it, focused on LOVE. Thank you Eileen Kopren and Corina Zalesky for the latest eye-catching display at Stoxen Library.