Library closed Labor Day weekend

Memorial Library will be closed on Saturday 9/1 and Sunday 9/2 due to Labor Day. The library will re-open at 3 PM on Monday 9/3. Have a safe and fun weekend!

Are books obsolete?

A recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll reveals that 25% of Americans did not read a book last year. More women than men read a book last year. The Bible was read by two-thirds of people while only one in five admitted to reading a romance novel. Less than five percent read poetry. Did you read a book on your own last year? Was it a novel or non-fiction? More and more people watch TV and movies instead, but a lot of movies and shows are based on books. Does the format matter? Is getting the gist of the story from the movie the same as reading the book? At Memorial library you can compare and contrast the books and movies with stories like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings both in print and on DVD. Not to mention our wide selection of Shakespeare movies and movies based on classics. (Jane Austen may or may not recognize Bride and Predjudice.) You might be surprised what movies are based on books. Keep your eyes open during the credits. If you like the movie you might love the book!





www.LISNews.org

College students miss the smell

When college students use an e-book what do they miss most about physical books? According to a Zogby survey the thing college students miss the most is the smell! One e-book publisher is even going so far as to send out scratch-and-sniff musty book stickers that students can put on their laptops. Luckily for you at Memorial Library you don't have to choose. We've got high tech e-books and good old fashioned ones as well. (Of course, our books don't smell, they simply have the heady fragrance of accumulated knowledge.)

via Wired

All we are saying is give Credo Reference a chance

Southwestern College has signed up for a one month trial of Credo Reference. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Credo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from 240 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research. Your institution chooses this selection and can swap in new titles from Credo Reference as they become available.
Offering access to over 1.7 million individual entries, Credo Reference contains all the types of reference books that you'd want to see in any quality library: dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and books of quotations, not to mention a host of subject-specific titles covering everything from the arts to accountancy and law to literature. And because all our books are provided by the best reference publishers, you know you can believe what you read.
But Credo Reference is one digital service that really uses the internet to add another dimension to our books and deliver you more. Not only does our powerful search look through books in seconds, but our unique network of related entries, connect relevant information across the whole library.
Whatever you need to find - facts, words, concepts, people, places or sayings - you'll find it in Credo Reference. All cross-referenced, all reliable and all in one place.

http://www.credoreference.com/

Welcome back! Regular library hours resume on August 22

We hope you had a great summer and we're glad to see you returning or joining us at Southwestern College. Our regular hours (see below) resume on August 22, the first day of classes. We will begin keeping the lobby open 24 hours a day during the school year and the Biblio Cafe will be returning as well! Finally, we've got plenty of books, CD's and DVD's just waiting to be checked out. Of course, we are always happy to help you with any reference or research questions you have as well. Have a great school year!

Regular Term Library Hours:

Monday- Thursday 7:45 AM - MIDNIGHT

Friday 7:45 AM - 6 PM

Saturday NOON - 4 PM

Sunday 3 PM - MIDNIGHT

A daily dose of literature

A nifty website called DailyLit sends bite sized chunks of literature right to your e-mail or RSS reader. This seems like it might work for some things better than others. It might be nice to read one or two poems a day but it would probably to hard to follow War and Peace one or two pages at a time.

How to fight information overload

With a new school year comes new demands for your time and attention. Web Worker Daily posted 21 tips for fighting information overload. Some are as simple as taking a break from your computer while others are a lot harder to imagine. Could you really restrict yourself to reading just five e-mails a day?!?

via LISNews

Say hola to the bibliomule

The BBC recently published an interesting story about a totally unique kind of library. The collection travels between villages in Venezuela on the backs of mules! Some areas even get to access the Internet with laptops. This is a fascinating mix of old and new technologies. There is a saying that necessity is the mother of invention and it is exciting to see what people can invent.

via Boing Boing

How to read e-books on your iPod

USA Today has an article on turning your iPod into an e-book reader. Every few years someone comes up with an e-book reader that doesn't catch on with the public. Even Microsoft couldn't make e-book devices popular. Now it turns out you may already be carrying an e-book reader at this very moment. What a great way to take some great books with you everywhere you go. Memorial Library has access to hundreds of e-books for you to choose from!