Category: Announcements

A Big Thank You to Our Users! –UPDATE

This has been a great summer! The overall positive attitude has been fantastic, and we know that it hasn’t been the easiest of things for you all. For example:

  • We appreciate your patience with having to log-in to most of our computers now. If you’re not a student, guest log-ins are free and available from the Regnier Center. Dirty lies! You only have to log in for printing, and the librarians can help guests get their guest printing cards. Guests will have to get temporary logins for wi-fi, though. That’s on me, guys. My bad.
  • We also implemented our Print Management system (which is a fancy way of saying that students have limited free printing and guests must pay for their print jobs).  If you need help, the librarians are more than willing and able to help you.  We know there have been some nasty hiccups, but your patience is appreciated.  We know it can wear you thin, but believe me when I say it can do the same to us.

Despite this summer of changes, we’ve been lucky enough to have great students, faculty, and guests with the patience of saints.  Thank you, everybody!

Slowing Down is Good for Our DVDs

We’ve been waiting for some new books to post. Since we’re near the end of the campus’s fiscal year, we’re adding fewer books to the catalog nowadays.

We’re still adding DVDs, mostly replacements from damaged or worn down items.  If you haven’t hit up our DVD section, let it be known that it is huge.  We’ve got a lot of feature films, including the ever-important ReAnimator, and of course more popular things like Avatar (which will be on the shelf in a couple days) and classics like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  In addition, we’re loaded with documentaries and educational films, too, including the epic miniseries Planet Earth. Stop by, browse, and grab something that catches your eye.

Welcome to JCCC, Summer Semester I

What’s crackin’? Summer Semester I is now underway and whether you’re new or returning, we thought it might be a good idea to remind you of some of our resources here:

  • Obviously, we’ve got this blog for noise about what’s happening in the library.
  • We have a Twitter feed and Facebook page, and we’re not above asking to be your friend. Plus, we use the Twitter feed to answer any questions you might have.
  • Our LibGuides area  collection of study resources based around topics that you’re likely to be assigned at some point, as well as an RSS Feed that pumps out all of our new books.
  • And of course, our library’s website has our catalog, a lot of databases, and plenty of other resources to help you out.

Don’t ever hesitate to swing by for help, to relax, or to say hi! We’re glad you’re at JCCC and hope we can be helpful during your time here!

300 Articles, Everybody!

What’s shaking, JCCC? I know, I know: It’s break, those few days where you don’t have to think about being in class, and faculty don’t have to think about teaching class.

But we never sleep! Ever! This morning at 12:21am, we uploaded the 300th item into ScholarSpace @ JCCC, and it is a doozy! The paper is actually a book written by Power Librarian Andrea Kempf entitled Shared Lives: Women Who Wrote for Women. It’s all about these prolific romance writers whose novels featured many events that, Andrea posits, actually reflected more of their lives than it did any certain fantasy.

So thanks to all the contributing authors for helping ScholarSpace hit this milestone! between that and our 7500+ full text downloads, I’d say it has been quite the success so far!

LibGuides! It’s Like Instant Reference!

Barry is just one of the librarians creating LibGuides to help you out!

With the semester winding down, you might be able to squeeze in some reading time. OR! Maybe you’re an avid reader with less time than normal.

LibGuides will not fail you! Check out Marsha Cousino‘s guide, Great Books Around 200 Pages. It’s already one of the most popular guides this year, and its packed with fiction and non-fiction for your (abbreviated) reading pleasure.

But don’t stop there! Plenty of guides covering a variety of topics are out there for you to peruse!

New Art in Our Gallery

Untitled #10 by Jenny Clasen. No idea if this will be in the library, but hey, it's something!

This came across the InfoList, folks:

CLASEN, SANDS PHOTOS ON VIEW IN THE BILLINGTON LIBRARY GALLERY THROUGH MAY 21

“A Study in Contrasts” is the latest exhibition in the Billington Library Gallery.

Fine art photographs by Jenny Clasen, adjunct professor, photography, and commercial photographs by Craig Sands, adjunct associate professor, photography, will be on view in the gallery until Friday, May 21.

The gallery is on the second floor of the Billington Library.

(Image from Ms. Clasen’s Artist File Online page.)

The Most Important Book You’ll Read Or Have Shouted At You

So there’s a lack of images in a lot of our new books, and not really a lot of new material.  Therefore, I’ve taken the liberty to plug one of the best books in our collection:

I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!) by Stephen Colbert.  But perhaps reading isn’t your thing. That’s cool, we also have the audio version “as shouted by the author” (it says it right on the cover). I’ll confess to personally owning both versions of the book. Heck, I even have the book on my iPod, and when it is on shuffle, a short portion will pop up and keep me entertained.

Our catalog is up today! That’s the rumor going round! Of course, you can always check our Twitter feed to keep updated on these types of things as they occur.

Check Out JCCC-Produced Scholarship @ ScholarSpace

JCCC leads community colleges when it comes to preserving campus-produced scholarship. We’ve hit 285 articles, presentations, and conference papers in our Institutional Repository, ScholarSpace.  Check it out! This is a place for faculty, staff, and students to submit material they’ve written or presented at conferences, for magazines or journals, or that they’ve just put a considerable amount of effort into. When you check it out, if you don’t see your area of expertise represented, fear not: we’ll make a spot for it.

We’ll See How This Goes: Ask Away

Consider this a trial-by-fire.  We’ve taken an interest in this Formspring, “ask us anything” service, so the library has started our own page:

http://formspring.me/JCCCLib

You can now anonymously ask us things like:

  • Important reference questions
  • Things you’re too afraid to ask at the desk
  • Questions on embarrassing topics
  • Curious inquiries into librarianship
  • More random errata

Honesly, we have no idea how this will go, but ask away, and we’ll find out.