Library closing at noon on Friday, December 21st

The library will be closing for the break at noon on Friday, December 21st. We will re-open at 8 am on Tuesday, January 2. Have a great break!

Winter break hours

Saturday and Sunday 15th-16th
Closed

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Monday 17th – Friday 21st
8am – 5pm

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Closed until January 2

Also, books checked out now are not due back until January 8! CDs and DVDs checked out now will be due December 19. Have a great break!

lolz! "w00t" is the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year

Visitors to the Merriam-Webster website have voted w00t the Word of the Year. (That's w00t with two zeros, mind you.) Merriam-Webster gives the following definition:

w00t (interjection)
expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay"

Runners up include facebook (maybe you've heard of it), blamestorm (A meeting held in order to come up with a name of a person to assign guilt to a certain incident), and Pecksniffian (unctuously hypocritical).

via Boing Boing

Library closing at 5 PM due to weather

The library is closing at 5PM today (Monday) due to the weather. The lobby will remain open. The library will either be open or closed with the rest of campus tomorrow. If you are unsure you can call 6225 to see if anyone is here. Stay safe!

Sheldon takes on Wikipedia

The comic strip Sheldon is taking on Wikipedia this week. Links to the first strip in the series. Don't forget to click forward to see more.





The strip above is a great illustration of why you can't rely on Wikipedia as a source for research. Any librarian with access to legitimate research tools like our databases could tell you that Skeletor could defeat Optimus Prime and Darth Vader at the same time with his hands tied behind his back.

Books you check out during finals week will not be due until January 8

Are you going to have some downtime during the break? Need something to occupy yourself in that plane, car, or tv-less guest room? Check out our new popular book collection just around the corner from the circulation desk! Any book you check out during finals week won't be due until you get back next semester! We have everything from non-fiction books to build your mental muscles to page turning light fiction to rot your mind. And best of all it's free! (As long as you bring it back.)

What the library can do for you during finals

Finals time, the most wonderful time of the semester (okay, maybe not) is here. But fret not, the library is here to help you.

• We have access to hundreds of journals through electronic databases. You can look for databases by subject or use a general database like Academic Search Premiere. Don't forget that you can limit your search results to full text articles. In most databases you can do an "Advanced Search" (or similar phrase) and then look for a box to check for "Full Text Only". If you find something that looks good but isn't coming up in full text the first place to look is in the Complete A to Z list of Journal Titles (Under "C" in the list of databases.) That should tell you all of the ways we have access to a particular journal. We might even have a copy right here in the library.
• We have both e-books and regular books. Check the catalog to see if we have what you are looking for. A-HL is downstairs, HM- L is by the restrooms on the main floor, M-Z is upstairs. Books are arranged by subject, so when you find one you like look around in that area for more on the same subject.
• Ask a librarian. That's what we are here for. You can stop by, call x6225 or e-mail Robert or Veronica.
• As always, stop by Cafe Biblio when a staff member is here for free coffee, tea, cider and hot chocolate.
• Our lobby will be open 24 hours a day until finals are over. Meet up with a study group or just escape your crazy roommate.
• Black and white printing is free. (Printer 2130 is down right now so please use printer 2041). Black and white copying is 15 cents a page. Color printing and copying is 25 cents a page. (The color printer is off the network right now, so you must come to the library and access your color files on a specific computer. We recommend emailing the files to yourself.) (Yes, that's a lot of printer problems. The printer gremlins must have waited until finals.)
• Complimentary stress balls at the circulation desk until supplies run out.
• Relax a little with some DVDs, CDs and popular fiction books.