Van Wylen Library

On Thursday, Nov. 3, writer Jaimy Gordon will come to Hope College as part of the Fall 2011 edition of the Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series. Gordon, a professor at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, graduated from Antioch College in 1966. She completed her Master of Arts and her Doctor of Arts at Brown University. She has written poetry, masque, and translations, though her fiction has received the most attention. She has published four novels: She Drove Without Stopping, Shamp of the City-Solo, Bogeywoman and Lord of Misrule. Gordon received the Academy-Institute Award for She Drove Without Stopping, and in 2000, the Los Angles Times placed Bogeywoman on its best books list. Lord of Misrule, her most recent novel, won the 2010 National Book Award for fiction.

Gordon will read selections of her writing at 7 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre downtown on Nov. 3. A live jazz performance preceding the reading beings at 6:30 p.m.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

When Hope College was chartered 145 years ago, it looked a lot different than it does today. If you’re interested in learning more about the history of Hope, look no further than the Reference Section of Van Wylen Library.

The reference section has a large collection of Hope College publications, all of which have call numbers beginning with LD2281. Here, you can find bound copies of the Hope College Bulletin, which we now know as the annual Hope College Catalog, from 1865 to present. Alumni directories and historic collections, such as a copy of the 125th anniversary book and the 100th Pull anniversary book, are also in this section. The library also has bound copies of News from Hope College dating back to 1947, when the magazine was simply referred to as the Alumni Magazine.

If you’re looking for a more in-depth view of Hope through the years, Van Wylen has copies of old Anchor issues from 1954 through last year. The library also has every Milestone published from 1917 to 2010, including two copies of the predecessor to our current yearbook, the 1905 Hope College Annual. As a window into student life, the Milestone can give you a general idea of what it must have been like to be a student here during the Great Depression, World War II or a few years before you first enrolled. You can see how longstanding Hope traditions such as the Pull, Nykerk and Spring Fling (originally called May Day) have changed dramatically since their beginnings. Eventually, the Joint Archives hopes to digitize all of these historic Milestones, but in the mean time, feel free to stop by Van Wylen to get a peek into Hope’s past.

Earlier this month I traveled to Milwaukee, WI to take part in a unique and timely symposium simply entitled “The Future of the Liberal Arts College Library.” The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), in cooperation with the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) organized this participant-driven, 2-day event in order to provide liberal arts librarians a venue at which to collaborate at and discuss, well …the future. No, we didn’t talk about librarian cyborgs equipped with decibel meter implants, ready and waiting to scold loud and unruly students with a perfectly compressed, digital “shhhhhhhhh!” Although, come to think of it, that would be pretty awesome. What we did talk about, however, was a wide range of issues pertaining to the “intersection of libraries and liberal arts colleges” both presently and in the foreseeable future.

This weekend Holland and Hope will celebrate the 200th birthday of their founder, Albertus C. Van Raalte. If you’re interested in brushing up on your Van Raalte history before attending the various events this weekend or the conference next week, a variety of resources are available on campus.

Over the summer, Van Wylen’s technical services department upgraded HopeCat, the library’s online catalog. Several new features are now available in HopeCat that will make using the catalog even easier. Many of these features require logging in to your HopeCat account, which can easily be done with your 1Hope username and password.

Texting Call Numbers

If you find a book you’d like in HopeCat but don’t have paper handy to write down the call number, you can now have HopeCat send you that information as a text message. If you have phone service from AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, or Virgin, simply click the “Send as a text message” icon below the book’s location. Enter your phone number, select your provider, and soon all the information you need to find your book will be on your phone.

Bag and Favorites features

When searching for a topic, you may run across several books in one search that you want to come back to. By selecting the box next to the items you’re interested in, you can save these materials either to your bag or to your favorites. Your bag will keep record of your selected items until the end of your session (when you can email or print the list), while your favorites list will permanently hold on to the items you choose so you can keep adding to the list in future searches.

Preferred Searches

Similar to the bag and favorites feature, Preferred Searches allows you to save an entire search for future use. Simply search a term in HopeCat and click on “Save as preferred search.” The entire search record will then be saved to your account so you can access it later. (Note: you will need to be logged into your account already to see this feature)

Reading History

Can’t remember the title of a book you checked out a while ago? It might be saved in your reading history. When you log into your HopeCat account, a link to your reading history will appear on the left side of the page. Simply “opt in” to this option, you will be able to go back and review previous items you’ve checked out from the library. These lists are private and cannot be viewed by anyone else, and you can “opt out” at any time.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Figuring out how to properly cite your sources can be one of the most stressful aspects of writing a paper. Thankfully, the library has several resources to help you out.

One of the most user-friendly tools for citations is EasyBib. This website allows you to easily switch between the three most common citation styles: MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian. Though you are first directed to tabs for sources you are most likely to cite, such as websites, books, newspapers, databases and journals, EasyBib offers a total of 58 potential formats for citation. EasyBib then guides you through entering in your citation information to create your bibliography.

EasyBib has several unique functions to help aid you in creating citations. Using the AutoCite tool, EasyBib can search the Internet to find some of the most important citation information related to your source. For example, you can enter just the title of a book into EasyBib, and it will then search WorldCat, a global library catalog, for the rest of the citation information. If the searching feature doesn’t work, there is a manual entry mode where you can enter all of the information yourself.

If you’re using resources found on a website, EasyBib can help you determine whether or not the website is credible. EasyBib evaluates websites in nine different categories and also guides you through helpful questions to ask yourself when considering a website as a source.

One note about EasyBib. When you use it on campus, you automatically have access to the premium version that contains all of these special features. In order to access all of these features from off-campus you will need to create a personal EasyBib account while on campus. Then, you can login from off-campus to access the complete version. Askalibrarian if you have questions about this.

The library also has print copies of A Writer’s Reference and all major style manuals behind the Research Help desk. If you’re in the library and need guidance on citations, feel free to ask one of the librarians at the desk if you can borrow a copy. Don’t hesitate to ask a librarian at the Research Help desk or sign up for a Writing Appointment if you ever have questions about citations.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

As the school year begins and projects start back up, you may notice some changes around your go-to databases for research. Several article databases have had interface updates over the summer. Here are some major ones:

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Need a study break? Van Wylen Library has over 400 periodicals in its browsing collection on nearly any topic you can think of. While you may be familiar with popular magazines in the collection such as People or Rolling Stone, consider these other magazines the next time you’re looking for something other than textbooks to read:

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports offers reviews and ratings of a variety of products. If you’re considering making a major purchase and would like a wide selection of side-by-side comparisons, Consumer Reports can be a helpful resource.

Sky & Telescope

If you’d like to take your stargazing to the next level, check out Sky & Telescope. This magazine includes articles related to astronomy and How Tos, such as how to see stationary satellites or how to spot certain planets.

Michigan History

Michigan History, published by the Historical Society of Michigan, has a range of articles related to the history of our state. The magazine not only features information on historical events that happened in Michigan but also shows how larger historical milestones such as the Civil War had Michigan connections.

Psychology Today

Interested in psychology but confused by scientific language? Psychology Today presents a variety of psychological topics such as personality and mental well-being in layman’s terms.

Check out these and many others in the magazines and journals browsing collection.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

The former home of the puppets in the curriculum library on the second floor has new inhabitants: a collection of pop up books donated to the library by retired education professor, Dr. Richard Mezeske.T

Mezeske began collecting pop up books over thirty years ago when his children were young. While he worked towards his master’s degree in reading instruction at Michigan State University, he learned about Lothar Meggendorfer and Ernest Nister, two of the founders of the mechanical book genre. From there, he began to collect more and more books.

“Once I read a fairly thick history of pop-up and mechanical books, I was hooked and the collection took off,” Mezeske said. “My dream is to one day make a reservation at the British Library in London to view its collection which goes back to the 17th and 18th centuries.”