Library Buzzz

If you’re looking for a quiet place to study for finals, try the Library 4th floor.

This entire floor is designated as SILENT STUDY, especially for those who want to avoid loud cell phone conversations and people doing group work.

If the 4th floor is too full, try the Library Lower Level (LL).

“Top-Two” voting system, as approved by voters in June 2010 [Proposition 14], is in affect. Thus ballots for U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and California State Senate and Assembly will contain ALL candidates names from ALL parties. Candidates may or maynot identify a party affiliation on the ballot.

If you are not affiliated with a party [Republican, Democrat, American Independent] the ballot will not have any PRESIDENTIAL candidates listed [pertains to the primary election only].

There are two propositions on the ballot: Proposition 28–Limits on state lawmakers’ terms of office and Proposition 29–Tobacco Tax increase.

Monday May 21, 2012 is the last date to register to vote. Voter registration forms are located in post offices or libraries [2nd floor CSUS], or register online at the Secretary of State’s Office by filling in the registration form, print and mail it. Tuesday, May 29, 2012 is the last day to request a “vote-by-mail” ballot.

For more information see:Easy Voter Guide or the Secretary of State’s Office

VOTE! your life may depend on it.

Once again the services and facilities of the University Library rank in the top three most satisfactory services on campus, just 1% behind “recreational facilities” with their new Wellness Center, and 3% ahead of “availability of internet access.”

In spring 2011 the graduating seniors survey reported we were in the top three in satisfaction as well. You like us!

To see the First Year College Experience Survey results go to www.csus.edu/oir/Reports.html

The Library Research Workshop series is winding down for Spring 2012, but there are still a few dates left. The three workshops are:

• Scholarly Journals: Tips for finding the best research; covers the use of 250-plus databases that index more than 40,000 journals, providing online, 24/7 access to full-text articles.
• Citing Your Sources: Covers both APA and MLA style manuals, with two additional sessions for the Chicago Style Manual.
• EndNote – Bibliographies Made Easy: Covers download, setup and use of EndNote X4 software, which is available free as a campus site license. Cite While You Write is available to MS Word users.

Individual registration is required: http://library.csus.edu/workshops. All sessions will be held in Library Instruction Lab 2023 and are limited to 15 attendees.

Faculty also may request instruction on these or any research topic by using the form at http://apps.lib.csus.edu/instruction_request/.

Spring 2012 Recess
Monday, March 19, 2012 – Sunday, March 25, 2012

The University Library will be open 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday and closed both Saturday and Sunday during the recess. So come in early if you need help with your research!

Actress, filmmaker, and co-founder of Orama Pictures Stavroula Toska visited the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection from Feb. 16-21 to conduct research on her current documentary film project, tentatively titled Three Candles. The film, narrated by Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis, chronicles the story of Greek women who were exiled into concentration camps from 1946-1949 during the Greek Civil War. Several notebooks of these women have been discovered and reveal both the atrocities they endured at the hands of the government as well as their inner lives during their internment.

During her stay Toska made use of the Collection’s extensive holdings on Greece during World War II and the ensuing Greek Civil War, including newspapers and pamphlets of the period and additional materials contained in the Vlavianos archive.

“I am so grateful for all the help and support I received during my visit to the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection. I never thought I’d be reading original newspapers and pamphlets from the 1940s about World War II and the Greek Civil War, as well as other scarce books that have been out of print for so many years. The information I was able to gather for our documentary feature surpassed all expectations and was simply priceless,” Toska said.

The film is currently in post production and is scheduled to screen at domestic and international film festivals in 2013. For more information about Three Candles, visit http://www.oramapictures.info/.

The Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection in the University Library has acquired the library of the late Pyrrhus J. Ruches and the Hellenic library of the late Dr. Steve A. Demakopoulos. For most of his career Ruches worked in New York as a journalist. He is the author of two books, Albania’s Captives (1965) and Albanian Historical Folksongs, 1716-1943: A Survey of Oral Epic Poetry from Southern Albania, with Original Texts (1967). Over the years he also published freelance articles in the Greek-American and Greek periodical press related to his interest in Northern Epirus and issues of the Greek minority in southern Albania. Among the roughly 1,800 items acquired from his library are books, pamphlets, journals, maps, and audio-visual materials in various languages reflecting his broad interests in the fields of Greek history, ethnography, folklore, cultural anthropology, and religion.

Demakopoulos was an economist, computer scientist, and author whose Hellenic library contains approximately 3,400 volumes in the fields of Greek lexicography, literature, folklore, and music; a music collection consisting of sheet music, musical archives, and audio recordings; and related subject files. He contributed numerous articles and columns for newspapers such as the National Herald, Proini, Hellenic Chronicle, Greek Star, and in various magazines. He is also the author of Do You Speak Greek? (2000), in which some of these articles are reprinted in an exploration of Greek language in use in everyday contexts.

These two gift acquisitions now dramatically strengthen the holdings of the Collection in several key subject areas as it inaugurates a three-year Library Research Fellowship Program, generously funded by the Elios Society, which will enable both budding and senior scholars outside the Sacramento region to enjoy sustained access to the wealth of materials contained in the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection in support of their academic endeavors while in residence for varying periods of time. For further information about these acquisitions or the Library Research Fellowship Program, see http://library.csus.edu/tsakopoulos/collection.asp.

Following a hiatus, the library’s subscription to L’Année philologique, the most comprehensive index to the scholarship of Classical studies (Ancient Greece and Rome), is back. With an improved interface and over 80 years of coverage (1924-2009), this database is your first stop to finding references to articles, books, reviews, book chapters and more on all subject areas within Classical studies. Users can log in to set custom preferences, save searches, create alerts, and save records.

The direct link to the database is http://www.annee-philologique.com/aph/ (off-campus users must log in using their Saclink username and password).

For further resources, see the Classical Studies Research Guide at: http://csus.libguides.com/classicalstudies.

I participated in a Webinar yesterday as part of the “Library 2.0 the future of libraries in the digital age” conference. Lots of interesting big ideas presented by the keynote speaker, Michael Stephens, but the thing that stuck with me was just a little thing. It dealt with making libraries more open and welcoming and he showed a lot of examples of negative signs about “no food and drink” or “absolutely no cell phones” etc. contrasted with signs that were more welcoming. The one I liked best is shown below. Maybe we could elimate the NO FOOD BEYOND THIS POINT sign on the front entrance if everyone obeyed these simple rules:

RULES FOR THE LIBARY
RESPECT YOURSELF
RESPECT OTHERS
RESPECT THE SPACE

The journal, Science Online, is available on a trial basis until December 23, 2011.  Through the Science Online link, you can access Science (back to 1880!), Science Now, Science Signaling, Science Translational Medicine and lots of other free content.

Access it through the “Databases Under Review Link” on the Database & Article Searching by Subject page, http://apps.lib.csus.edu/trials/index.php