New Communication Database

One of the newest databases added to Van Wylen’s collection is Communications & Mass Media Complete. This database covers nearly 700 titles, has full-text availability for over 380 journals and substantially increases our resources for communications research. Though the content is geared towards communication students, students in other fields may also find this database relevant for their studies.

One particularly useful feature of this database is that it includes a subject thesaurus within the search results that can help you narrow down a broad topic. For example, if you need to research advertising, the subject thesaurus located on the left side of the screen will provide options such as management, consumer behavior, and Internet advertising. By clicking on these or any other of the provided terms, you can easily limit the scope of your search to find something more related to your research.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Collection Highlights: New Browsing Books

Looking for something to do over spring break? Check out some of these newest additions to the browsing collection for a fun way to spend your free time:

committedCommitted: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage is Elizabeth Gilbert’s follow-up memoir to her first release, Eat, Pray, Love and is a New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestseller. In it, Gilbert finds herself essentially required to marry, despite having sworn off marriage after a previous bad divorce. Gilbert uses this experience to delve into the many complex aspects of marriage.

8th confessionThe 8th Confession, written as the eighth installment in the Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson and Maxine Patero, is also on the New York Times Trade Fiction Bestseller list. Well-to-do citizens are mysteriously murdered without any evidence of violence left on their bodies, and it is detective Lindsey Boxer’s job to get to the bottom of the case. At the same time, Boxer’s journalist friend Cindy Thomas wants the police to investigate the murder of a homeless man known only as Bagman Jesus.

sisStones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson continues where his previous work, Three Cups of Tea left off. This book, also on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller list, recounts Mortenson’s efforts to create schools for girls in Afghanistan, work done after a 2005 earthquake in the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan, and his ways of building relationships with various people from all walks of life in the Afghanistan area.

boywind In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer tells of how he used supplies found in his Malawian village to build an electricity generating windmill. This book was chosen by Amazon.com as one of the Top Ten Books of 2009.

pomegranatesTraveling with Pomegranates is a dual memoir, written by author Sue Monk Kidd of The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. This book takes us with the two women as they travel and rediscover themselves and each other.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Meet the Library: Technical Services and Systems

If you have ever used any resource provided by Van Wylen library, whether print or electronic, you owe your access to that resource to Technical Services and Systems. This department of the library, housed on the first floor, has two functions. The technical services aspect is responsible for ordering, cataloging, and processing new materials in addition to handling journal subscriptions. The systems aspect maintains the library software system, all the computers in the library, the library website, and electronic database subscriptions.

There are seven employees who work in Technical Services along with many student workers. Brian Yost, the head of Technical Services, has been with the library for 13 years. He began as a systems librarian working with computers, which he felt was a perfect fit. “I liked computer things but I also liked learning and reading and books, so systems work especially seemed like a good combination,” Yost said.

Because of the ever-changing nature of technology, Technical Services constantly has to adapt in order to stay up-to-date. Yost considers this to be one of the most interesting aspects of working in Technical Services.

“In terms of how we get access, nothing stays the same every year,” Yost said. “We had no idea five years ago the kind of things we would have access to electronically, and five years from now the electronic information resources will significantly increase.”

Gloria Slaughter is another Technical Services librarian. She began working for the library 21 years ago, and since that time has seen a significant change in Technical Services. When she began, the library subscribed to about 1200 print titles and had no electronic journals or databases. Now, the library has around 400 print subscriptions and access to over 42,000 electronically. With the electronic resources came new tasks, such as setting up access and figuring out licensing agreements. She also maintains the journals list on the library website and works with the linking that helps guide users to full-text articles. This is one of the major things that has changed in her 21 years at the library.

“You used to have to always come here to access the journals,” Slaughter said. “They were in print, bound, on microfiche or microfilm. Now the majority of information can be accessed anywhere.”

One of Slaughter’s favorite parts about working in Technical Services is the variety of tasks and problems she is faced with. “Things are constantly changing,” Slaughter said. “You have to do this part, then this part, then this part, and they all have to work together. It’s never the same thing.”

Derek Broyhill is one of Technical Services newest employees. He began to work for the library in July 2009 and does many things related to library technology, such as helping Yost manage the library system, maintaining HopeCat, providing technical support to library staff members, and maintaining all the computers in the library. He also designed and maintains the updated library website.

Broyhill, like Slaughter, enjoys the range of work he is able to do. “It’s never a dull moment,” Broyhill said. “There’s such a variety of things that I can any given day do something completely different than the previous day. It’s always interesting.”

Ethnic NewsWatch Database

Looking for a different perspective in your research? Ethnic NewsWatch could be the perfect database for you. This full-text database is made up of over 300 ethnic, minority, and native publications such as The Arab-American News, the Native American Times, and La Opinión. These and the many other titles you can access at Ethnic NewsWatch all fall outside mainstream news and can provide you with information you might not have found otherwise.

One of the interesting things you can do with your research through Ethnic NewsWatch is narrow down your search by ethnic group. For example, if you wanted to learn about education from an Asian or Pacific Islander perspective or immigration as it relates to those of Arab or Middle Eastern descent, you can select those specific ethnic groups in your search. You can also search all publications in the database for information on education, immigration, or any other topic.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Student Faces of the Library

Student library workers are an important part of Van Wylen. Almost a hundred students support various aspects of library operations every semester. Here are four of the many students who help make the library a useful place to study and research:

Circulation Desk

mariaMaria E. (’10) has worked in the library since her freshman year. She helps with shelving, checking books in and out, reserves, finding missing items, and assisting the public. She also works at Cup & Chaucer. She considers looking at the books Van Wylen has to be the best part about her job.

Reference Desk

GlenGlen S. (’10) began working at the library when he was a sophomore. As a reference desk student worker, he helps people find books in the library and articles in databases. He likes that working at the reference desk has helped him learn how to do his own research.

Media Desk

kaylaKayla R. (’12) has worked at the media desk for one semester. Like Maria, she also checks books in and out and does shelving, but as a media desk staffer she is also involved with things such as laminating. Her favorite part about the job is being able to interact with people.

TechLab

emilyEmily A. (’13) began working for the library last November. As a student worker in the TechLab, she helps people with software questions and assists those who come into use the TechLab computers, which feature software and applications not found on most Hope College computers. She enjoys helping people and figuring out solutions to problems people may have with unfamiliar software.

Visiting Writers Series: Terrance Hayes

small HayesThe second Visiting Writers Series event of 2010 will take place Tuesday, March 9, when poet Terrance Hayes comes to Hope College. Hayes is a professor of creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University and currently has three published collections of his poems. His most recent collection, Wind in Box, was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the best 100 books of 2006. Other collections include Hip Logic, which was a 2001 National Poetry Series selection, and Muscular Music, recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A fourth collection, Lighthead, is scheduled for release later this year. He has also been published multiple times in various journals, including the Antioch Review, the New Yorker, and American Poetry Review.

Hayes will give a poetry reading at 7:00 p.m. in the Knickerbocker on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning from 9:00-10:20, Hayes will teach a free master class called “The Craft of Feeling” in Fried-Hemenway Auditorium in the Martha Miller Center.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Collection Highlights: Oscar Winners

lawrenceThe 82nd annual Academy Awards will take place this Sunday in California. Even though Hope College may be far from the handing out of the golden statuettes, Van Wylen has many Oscar winning movies in its collection to help you get in the spirit of the awards. In the videorecording section on the second floor, you canfind recent winners such as the 2008 Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire and timeless classics like the 1943 Best Picture, Casablanca, in addition to many other Best Pictures recognized by the Academy.

If this past awards season has inspired you to learn more about the movie industry, the library can help. There are many materials in Van Wylen’s collection related to film and acting. Feel free to explore them and develop your inner cinephile.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

A.J. Muste Alcove

musteA.J. Muste, a prominent pacifist and labor activist, is one of Hope College’s most famous graduates. Muste was born in Zierkzee, the Netherlands in 1885 but moved to Grand Rapids with his family in 1891. He enrolled in the Hope Preparatory School in 1898 and entered Hope College in 1902, where he was a captain of the basketball team, editor for The Anchor, and valedictorian of the Class of 1905. Muste continued his education at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and in 1909 was ordained in the Reformed Church of America.

Muste remained in the RCA for five years before joining the Congregational Church. He ministered a congregation in Massachusetts until 1917, when he resigned due to a feeling amongst the members of the church that his anti-war stance prevented him from providing proper pastoral care to those who had lost family members in World War I. He and his family then moved to Providence, Rhode Island where he became more involved in anti-war work. As time progressed, Muste became active in labor movements to the point where he abandoned the original Christian foundation upon which he built his pacifist views in exchange for Marxist labor values. During a trip to Europe in 1936, however, Muste felt a call to return to the church and in 1937 became the director of the Presbyterian Church’s Labor Temple in Manhattan.

Throughout the rest of his life Muste remained active in pacifist movements, protesting World War II, nuclear war, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Muste died of an aneurysm in 1967 at the age of 82 just two weeks after he had traveled to Vietnam to see the effects of the war firsthand.

One of the ways that Muste is recognized at Hope College is through the annual A.J. Muste Memorial Peace Lecture. This lecture series began in 1985 on the 100th anniversary of Muste’s birth, and throughout the past 25 years it has brought speakers to campus that give a lecture on a topic of their choice, usually related to world issues such as war and peace. Dr. Brad Richmond of the music department, the chairman of the A.J. Muste Committee, said the goal of the lecture series is to provide the audience with a different perspective.

“The purpose is to simply open one’s eyes and ears to peace and be slower to rush to judgment,” Richmond said. “That’s why continuing the series is important, but we can’t just bring in activists and protestors. We also need to talk about the displacement and killing of citizens that end up being a part of war even though they didn’t have a say.”

alcoveOn the second floor of Van Wylen Library, a study alcove has been dedicated to Muste. This alcove features a unique sculpture created by John Saurer (’89) called “Stop, Look, and Listen.” This sculpture is made of a large cylinder, cube, and pyramid that feature a chalkboard surface so that those in the campus community can cover them with their own musings and reflections.

The library also has a number of resources related to Muste, including books and essays written by Muste and biographies about his life and work. The Joint Archives of Holland has a large collection of Muste’s works, letters, and personal library. Additionally, the Historical New York Times database contains numerous articles by and about Muste.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is Google’s specialized search engine aimed at identifying scholarly literature online. “From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites” (About Google Scholar).

You will often be required and, in fact, find yourself needing to use a particular library database for specific courses assignments, so in this regard Google Scholar is certainly not the be all and end all of academic search engines. However, if you are ever seeking a broad, panorama-like search of scholarly sources, Google Scholar is a legitimate option to consider.

Some important things to note:

  • Many article results will essentially be links leading to publisher websites. Checking for full-text may require taking further steps via the library’s Journals List. That being said, there are also many articles that will link you directly to the full-text in places such as JSTOR if you are on campus and the library subscribes to the content being found.
  • Book results will come primarily from Google Books, a vast repository of scanned books (partial and whole). The vast majority of the books here will be “limited previews,” meaning that, for obvious reasons, copyright restrictions permit only portions of the text be made freely available. However, you can get access to complete print versions of these titles through HopeCat, MeLCat and InterLibrary Loan services.

Here is an example search using the “Advanced Google Scholar” page:

Google Scholar

While ambivalence toward information sources found by “Googling” will continue to be present in academic circles, Google Scholar has proven itself satisfactory and worthy of our attention.

So who says librarians don’t embrace the Internet?

As with any other research-related questions, feel free to ask us if you would like to know more about a source you find online. Is it legit? Can I get the full-text? How do I know if it is peer-reviewed? There’s a ton of information out there. It can be chaos, but we’re here to help dissect it.

Todd Wiebe
Reference and Instruction Librarian
Van Wylen Library

LibGuides

LibGuidesOne of the hardest parts of researching can be figuring out where to start. This past August, Van Wylen Library added a new tool to help you find the library sources that are most relevant to your topic: LibGuides.

LibGuides are electronic guides that feature easy access to research information. Though the exact material on a LibGuide varies from guide to guide, LibGuides can include many different sources, including books from HopeCat, databases for article research, lists of high quality websites, RSS feeds, and even YouTube videos. They also often provide tips on using these tools. In addition, all guides include contact information for the librarian who created the guide, so that you can get in touch with him or her if you have questions.

The librarians at Hope are excited about the many ways in which LibGuides help their teaching. According to Todd Wiebe, a reference librarian: “In the past I have printed off paper handouts containing library research information for specific courses. Thankfully, LibGuides have put a long overdue halt to this practice. LibGuides are more dynamic and have the ability to link students directly to relevant library resources. Last but certainly not least, online library guides saves trees!”

One of the particularly convenient things about LibGuides is their availability. “It gives students a quick and easy way to remember and go back to the things they learned about,” Jessica Hronchek, Reference Librarian, said.

Another benefit of LibGuides is that they can be updated at any time. Dead links can be easily removed and new information can be placed on a guide as it becomes available: all things that aren’t possible on a printout.

If you haven’t had a class with a library session, LibGuides can still be very helpful. All of the major subject areas offered at Hope have their own general LibGuide, which can provide you with a starting place for subject research. Class-specific LibGuides are also available to students not enrolled in that particular class. For example, one of the classes with a LibGuide is Religion 345: The Reformation. If you needed to do research on the Reformation for another class, you can still access the Religion 345 LibGuide, where you can find research help for general information, books, articles and primary sources.

Right now, the library is continuing to increase the number of guides available. In the future, they would like to include more topical guides, such as student publishing, the annual Critical Issues Symposium, and other events on campus.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger