PowerBlog

We knew it was coming - just not so soon. But as of right now, and for another 7-8 weeks, the library's public elevator is out of commission. All elevators require regular maintenance (who wants to get stuck in one?) and ours is no exception. At the same time, the library's was in desperate need of a facelift (it was built in 1973). So this is one of those jobs that combines cosmetic improvements with mechanical upgrades. The renovations should be completed by early July. But in the meantime...we've made the necessary arrangements to insure that everyone can get to the upper floors, whether to retrieve a book or to study. Those unable to use the stairs will have access to our freight elevator. Don't worry, it's not one of those antique "looks like it hasn't moved in years" kind of freight elevators. Library staff use it every day. But it does require a key. So anyone needing an elevator should go to the Circulation Desk where someone will be av...

Many students use this time of year to chalk up a few credits. Summer school classes are smaller, they're short, there can be a real sense of comraderie (you have a common goal and you feel sorry for each other) and they can lighten the load for next year. Or maybe you just need that one...last...half...credit to graduate. Whatever the reason, whatever the course, this is just a reminder that the library is here to help. We're open most nights till 9:00 and there is always someone at the Reference Desk ready and willing to work with you to find the very best research material for your assignments. Remember, too, that many thousands of online journals and e-books can be accessed from our web site any where, any time. And if you need any help with these (or with any other issue/question/problem), you can always get in touch with us at research@smu.ca or 420-5544. So good luck and enjoy! Those six weeks will just fly by...

Maybe you're one of the lucky ones: you've just handed in your final assignment of a very long year. Or maybe there's just that one, last, tougher-than-all-the-rest paper that needs to be finished and sent. In either case, you'll soon, like it or not, be gearing up for exams. No more writing, "just" studying. And to help you get that studying done, and just like we always do, the Library will be open longer hours throughout the exam period . Here's what they look like: April 8 - April 11 Thursday & Friday 8:00am - 11:00pm Saturday 8:00am - 11:00pm Sunday 10:00am - 11:00pm April 12 - 18 Monday-Friday 8:00am - 11:00pm Saturday 8:00am - 11:00pm Sunday 10:00am - 11:00pm April 19 - 25 Monday-Wednesday 8:00am - 11:00pm Thursday 8:00am - 7:00pm Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm Saturday & Sunday Closed April 26 - May 2 (Intersession) Monday-Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm Saturday & Sunday Closed So good luck over the next few weeks. Oh, and one other thing, remembe...

We know how much you need us (and our computers and our comfy chairs and our shelter from the rain). So, no matter what's happening elsewhere on campus, the Library will be open throughout the coming Easter weekend, as follows: Friday (Good Friday) 9:00am - 11:00pm Saturday 10:00am - 9:00pm Sunday (Easter Sunday) noon - 11:00pm Monday (Easter Monday) 8:00am - 11:00pm Notice that we will open an hour later than normal on Friday morning but stay open a little longer Saturday evening. The hours on Sunday and Monday are the usual ones. So good luck with those last minute assignments and remember that there will be staff at the Reference desk who will be more than happy to lend you a hand.

Like most libraries, we check out a lot of books. Every year. It's one of the important things we do. Well at this library, nobody has checked out more books than Ken Clare. You may be one of the thousands of students who have had their books checked out by Ken over the years. Some time tomorrow, one of you will be the last. That's because Ken is retiring. And we don't know who will miss him more - the people who work in the library or the people who use it. Maybe you don't know Ken by name but you've probably seen him around - usually at the Circulation desk - that big guy with the big mustache. He's been lending journals, receiving books, collecting fines, forgiving fines and trading jokes with students (and supervising an entire department) for a very long time. Since 1982. Before most of you were born. So to say that he deserves his retirement is an understatement. Have you ever seen a group of women wearing Boston Red Sox shirts and tiaras on t...

There were some changes made this week to the way we organize the many different databases we now have. We think it's an improvement and we hope you do too. Let me explain: You know that Databases A-Z list in the Find articles section in the middle of our web site? Well it originated many years ago when our electronic offerings were a small fraction of their current number. It was intended to bring them all of them together in one master list, with an inclusive interpretation of the term “database”. Over time, this list has grown to include not just journal indexes but electronic statistical sources and e-books as well. These sources were all electronic but they were also significantly different. As the list grew (and the pace is accelerating rather than slowing down), it was becoming quite unwieldy. For someone looking for journal articles on a subject, especially first or second year students, that long list was pretty intimidating (and probably confusing). We have now separate...

Are you an Irish Studies major? Are you of Irish descent (the whole year, not just on March 17)? A lover of Irish music, literature, coffee or pubs? Wolfhounds? If you've said yes to any of these, you'll be interested in a new online resource the library has just acquired (the fact that Saint Patrick's Day is next week is mere coincidence). The Dictionary of Irish Biography is "the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary yet published for Ireland". This web-based edition includes more than 9,000 signed biographies of historical figures from politics, religion, science and the arts. It is the result of a collaborative effort by the Royal Irish Academy and Cambridge University Press. Irish poet Seamus Heaney calls the publication of the DIB "an epoch-making event in the history of Irish scholarship" while another Irish man of letters, Colm Toibin (who visited Saint Mary's not long ago), feels that it "will be greeted ...

Most of you are familiar with the libguides which we've created for various academic subjects (see the Getting started in links on our main page). And some of you will have used the one we developed specifically for international students. These guides bring together various kinds of information, from how to use the Library's resources to campus services and support. Well now there's a guide designed to meet the unique needs of Graduate students. It includes important info on borrowing privileges, research help, journal and statistical databases, citation management and everything you need to know about theses and dissertations (there are even links to e-books on thesis writing). To find the graduate student libguide you can go here or follow the Library guides link in the left hand column of our web site. Always trying to help...

The Nippon Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization which supports a variety of projects designed to promote an understanding of Japan overseas (go here for more info). They do a lot of different things, including donating "...carefully selected books that provide information on contemporary Japan” to libraries around the world - including this one. Because of our Asian Studies Program, we applied for and received a great collection of about 40 of these books on subjects ranging from Japanese film, Manga and literature to politics, business and history. They are currently on display in the Reference Room (far right corner), they're all in English and they can all be borrowed. To show you what I mean, here's the list of titles: Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film Oe and Beyond: Fiction in Contemporary Japan Broadcasting Politics in Japan: NHK and Television News Constructing Civil Society in Japan: Voices of Envi...

...and so do the students who use it. We had another successful Food For Fines campaign this year! Thanks to you, our campus food bank received 343 food items as well as $108 in donations. This is a win-win-win situation. Students get their fines cut in half, the food bank gets re-stocked and we get our books back. And it's not just here at Saint Mary's. This is a Novanet initiative. So food banks in communities across Nova Scotia benefit - Halifax, Sydney, Antigonish, Truro, wherever there's a NSCC campus. So congratulations to whoever came up with the original idea and congratulations to those of you who make it work year after year.

Or perhaps your taste runs more to The Walrus, Maisonneuve, Film Comment or Wired. Whatever magazines you like to read in your spare time (yeah, I know, what spare time?), you can now find a lot of them in the library. We've started a bunch of new subscriptions this year (including all of the above) to go along with the old favourites (Time, MacLeans, National Geographic, etc.). You can find them, and many more, in what was, until recently, the library's lobby (everybody but first years know where I mean). Come into the library, go through the glass doors in the far right corner and you'll walk right into them. Well, actually, you'll walk right into shelves of newspapers. But keep on going. Persevere. Eventually you'll hit a tall grey display unit full of the latest issues of about 80 of the most popular magazines around. Maybe you'll discover one you didn't know about. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to drag you away from your academic pu...

It's time for our annual Food for Fines campaign - a chance to clear your overdue fines (if you have any), save money and help Saint Mary's students - all at the same time! Here's how it works, in 4 easy steps: you bring non-perishable food to the library's Circulation Desk we reduce your fines by $2 for each item you donate (maximumof $20) all the food is delivered to the Saint Mary's campus food bank other Saint Mary's students enjoy the benefits Of course, you don't need to have fines in order to help. We'll take food (or cash) from anyone! This year's campaign runs from January 18 -27. See you at the Circulation Desk!

So, it's the first day of a new term and you're thrilled/crushed to be back and filled with enthusiasm/dread. There's probably nothing I could say to make school any easier. I could say that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expose your young mind to a magical world of ideas and imagination. I could say that a college education is your chance to secure a glowing future, filled with prosperity and happiness. But then I'd just sound like your mother or high school guidance counselor. Fact is, you wouldn't be here unless, deep down, you wanted to be. You've been a student most of your life so you already know the routine, the work and the reward. Of course, the Library can help with that work part. In fact, helping students, students like you, is what we do. Long papers, short ones, easy ones, tough ones, we've got the resources, space and people you need. Drop by. Talk to us. Find a computer, find a book, find a secluded spot where a noisy world won...

It's that time of year. With each passing day there are fewer students who still have a paper to write or an exam to prepare for, fewer students coming to the library in search of inspiration or motivation. Such is campus life in December. For many of those desperate souls, it is the knowledge of a too-brief but beautiful Christmas break which allows them to grind out the last few hundred words of that last assignment, to push that exam mark just a little higher. A few weeks of freedom and turkey is just around the corner, a just reward. So to all of you - the serious ones, the carefree ones, the driven ones, the doonlyasmuchasIhaveto ones - everyone here at the Library extends a heartfelt wish for a pleasurable and relaxing holiday. And we'll see you all in January when that great adventure called A University Education begins again...

As if you needed (or wanted) to be reminded...exams start soon. And there's no better place to study for an exam than here in the Library. We've got lots of comfy chairs and quiet, private study spaces. No nagging kid brothers or noisy room-mates, no TV or video game temptations. So, as we always do, we'll stay open more hours than usual until they're finished on the 19th. The big difference is on the weekends where we'll open earlier and stay open later on Saturday and open earlier on Sunday (go here if you want to see our full schedule into January). Remember, just...a...few...more...weeks. You made it this far!

Most of the University will be closed this Wednesday, November 11, in honour of Remembrance Day. However, the Library will be open from noon until 11:00 pm. So, we'll open a little later than we usually do but we'll stay open until the normal time. You can use our computers, do your research, borrow books or study for a midterm (just don't arrive in the morning!).

As of this morning you may notice a few changes to the Library’s web site. The welcome banner along the top now includes “& Global Commons” and a few links have been re-located or re-named. We’ve also added a link called “Borrowing our materials” which provides info on IDs and how to get, renew, return and generally access our resources. But there has been another change which is quite significant. We have always used the Novanet catalogue to find out which books, etc. were available at Saint Mary’s or the other local academic libraries. Well now there’s another way to do that. It’s called SMU.worldcat and you’ll find a link just below the book search box. SMU.worldcat is part of a global initiative to improve access to library collections. Here’s what you should know: A search of SMU.worldcat will retrieve both books and journal articles. This is a convenient option not available in Novanet. Of course, the specialized journal databases may still be your best bet. So if, for exa...

Remember those changes I was telling you about? Well, they arrived this morning! The curtains separating us from the Atrium were pulled back and you should see the difference it makes. Our entrance is filled with light and we can all see what the space is going to look like when the Global Commons is ready (in a few weeks). We've spent the day moving furniture, supplies and people over to the 2 new service desks and everything and everyone is settling in nicely. The biggest change (other than the new desks) is that you can get to the Library from McNally again (everybody who's not in their first year knows what I mean). That's right - no more going outside. Plus, the other end of the Atrium is now open too so you can get here easily from either the Student Centre or Burke. But the best thing is for you to see it for yourself. So drop over for a few minutes and look around. I'm sure you'll be impressed. And don't worry, the Just Us! coffee shop is on its way.

Want to know more about The Atrium and everything it will offer? Want to find out more about the relationship between the Atrium and the Library? Want to know what a "living wall" is? Then all you have to do is go to http://www.theatrium.ca/ . This brand new site is full of information on the many different resources and services which students (and faculty and staff) will be able to enjoy once it is completed (the finishing touches are scheduled for late January/early February). By the way, the "living wall" has already been installed and it looks great! As you know, the Global Learning Commons will dominate the Atrium's first floor and visitors will pass through that space to get to the library. Right now the guys in hard hats are pulling out all the stops to get the area ready so that our new entrance can open on October 1. All of the furniture and computers for the Commons should arrive just a few weeks later. Once that's done, with our new service desks...

Faculty and staff are invited to a special presentation: Getting the Most from Canadian Census and Stats Canada Data at Saint Mary's This informative workshop will be held on Friday, the 18th, from 10:30-12:30, in Room L271. It will: highlight the broad range of information available from the latest census and the wealth of historical information in past census demonstrate how easy it is to access census information for use in your classroom explore advanced statistical research resources and in-depth census data sources available to researchers answer questions about the services offered through the Statistics Canada Atlantic Research Data Centre, as well as Data Liberation Initiative services offered on campus Presenters will be Sai Choi Chua, Atlantic Research Data Centre, Dalhousie University and Peter Webster, Systems Librarian, Patrick Power Library. To RSVP or for more information, contact Peter at peter.webster@smu.ca or 420-5507