Monday, September 30, 2013

Classical Music Library, American History in Video Databases Temporarily Unavailable

Alexander Street Press - - the provider of two Carmichael Library databases - - has reported a temporary outage with their products. This unexpected downtime only affects American History in Video and Classical Music Library. We'll post to our Facebook Page again when we get an update from our database provider.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Banned Books: Carmichael Library Celebrates Intellectual Freedom

In 2013, most people have formed an idea that the United States is a free country that bears little, if any, resemblance to Ray Bradbury's dystopian landscape in Fahrenheit 451. There's no state police force burning books on the streets, and citizens are free to to read whatever they want. Look closer, though, and you will find countless incidents of literature and content that is challenged or suppressed because of ideological reasons. For instance, a school system in Judson, TX prohibited students from reading Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Allegedly, the Judson superintendent said that parents had complained that Atwood's book is sexually explicit and offensive to Christians. And it's not just books that are being banned. An article in the Huffington Post reports that the government has asked Google to block or remove items from its search results for reasons that are political in nature.


We need to think about the imperative of intellectual freedom. Stop by the Carmichael Library sometime soon to observe Banned Books Week and reflect on this important issue. On the main floor of the Carmichael Library, we've set up a display with selections from the ALA's list of 100 most frequently challenged books of the past decade. Our display is a part of the ALA's Banned Books Week program. Of course, you are encouraged to check out a banned book and read it. You might be surprised to see which books have been challenged on social or ideological grounds.

Let us know about your experiences with banned books in the comments. Did you attend a high school that suppressed certain books or films? Have you read a banned book before and wondered why it has been challenged?

Sunday, September 08, 2013

Fall 2013 Instruction Workshop Series Now Available

The Carmichael Library would like to announce the Fall 2013 Instruction Workshop Series. We've hosted sessions like these in past semesters, and now we introduce an expanded lineup on topics like blogging, using Twitter for information management, crafting online presentations, and more.



Instruction workshops are hands-on experiences where you learn how to create projects or manage information with online tools. You can come and ask questions, work on your own class assignments, or just observe. And because the sessions are informal, there's no need to make reservations. Arrive late or leave early. We don't mind! 

Earn Badges

Some professors may offer extra credit if you attend an instruction workshop session, but more often than not, you may want to come and learn simply because you're interested. However, you may also want to earn badges. If you attend a workshop, you are entitled to earn a badge (see the lineup on the above slideshow), and you may also opt in to our semester long badges competition. Those who accumulate the most badges will receive prizes, which may include print cards to be used in the library. We'll keep track on a leaderboard, which is displayed on the Instruction Workshop Series homepage.



This first session is Informed Blogging this Wednesday, September 11 at 4:00 PM in the EBSCO classroom on the ground floor of the library. If you're in a class that requires blogging, or if you're generally interested in using blogs to organize information or share content with a public audience, you are welcome to come to this workshop. We hope to see you this fall at Carmichael.

Fall 2013 Instruction Workshop Series

Wednesday, September 11, 4:00-5:00 PM Are you taking a class that requires you to write on a blog? Are you interested in writing for an online audience? This workshop will help you understand the Wordpress blogging platform. Andrew Battista will explain the conventions and technical skills needed to blog effectively.

Citation Management with Zotero - Monday, September 16, 5:00 PM-6:00 PM  Zotero is the only research tool that automatically senses content, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click. Learn how to use Zotero to organize research, generate citations, and collaborate with other people.

Apps for Research - Tuesday, September 24, 5:00-6:00 PM How can you make the most of your iPhone or iPad to succeed academically? Lauren Wallis workshops some apps and shares ideas on how to increase productivity.

Curating with ARTstor - September 25, 3:30 PM-4:30 PM Catherine Walsh helps us use ARTstor to organize information and image collections for teaching and personal research.

Curating with Twitter - Thursday, September 26, 3:00-4:00 PM In this session, Andrew Battista will demonstrate how to organize and consume information via Twitter, a microblogging platform that limits user contributions to 140 characters. We will cover the skills of attention management and will explore supplementary Twitter apps and platforms.

Building Archives with Omeka - Thursday, September 26, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Omeka is a content management system that allows users to digitize resources and display them in collections. Learn about Dublin Core and other elements of archival creation with Omeka.

Charting History with Timeline JS - Wednesday, October 2, 3:00-4:00 PM Do you want to tell a story about how ideas or things develop over time? Timeline JS is a tool that allows you to display data as a linear, interactive narrative. All you need is a Google Account. In this workshop, Andrew Battista will share ideas about incorporating creative media sources into Timeline JS projects.

Technology for Presentations - Tuesday, October 8, 5:00-6:00 PM Learn how to use free online resources to enhance your next class presentation. Lauren Wallis will demonstrate using Prezi, Glogster, Storify, and Pic Monkey to support engaging presentations.

Developing GIS Projects - Wednesday, October 9, 3:00-4:00 PM GIS projects are visual representations on maps of complex social, economic, natural, and cultural patterns. GIS projects help students form questions about people and places and translate them into a map that represents data that shows some kind of change over time. In this workshop Andrew Battista will explore GIS projects with Google Fusion Tables.

Life after Google Reader - October 22, 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Now that Google Reader is no longer supported by Google, users have to find an RSS alternative. Andrew Battista and Lauren Wallis co-lead a session on mastering RSS readers. We will explore the process of creating journal alerts, following podcasts, and organizing popular publications.

Podcast Editing with Audacity - Monday, November 4, 3:00-4:00 PM  Learn to create and produce audio projects with Audacity, a free editing software. Andrew Battista will facilitate a hands-on editing workshop. You are encouraged to bring your own laptop.

Advanced Googling - November 5, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM Explore how to use Google for research. Lauren Wallis will talk about the usual suspects, Google Books and Google Scholar, but we'll also explore keeping current with specialized current events and scholarship through Google News and RSS alerts.

Editing and Producing with iMovie - Thursday, November 7, 4:00 - 5:00 PM Involved in a movie or video project? Mike Price of the Digital Media Lab shows us how to edit videos and produce content with Apple's iMovie software.

Navigating WorldCat Local - Wednesday, November 13, 4:00-5:00 PM  Learn smarter organization strategies and search better with WorldCat Local.

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

ARTstor and The National Gallery

ARTstor and The National Gallery, London have collaborated to share images of every painting in the museum’s permanent collection in the Digital Library.


The National Gallery houses one of the greatest collections of Western European painting in the world. Composed of more than 2,300 works dating from the 13th century to the early 20th centuries, the collection encompasses most major developments in Western painting. Highlights include Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses), Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ, Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34, Holbein’s The Ambassadors, Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne, van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, and Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus.


Francesco Botticini | The Assumption of the Virgin | probably about 1475-6| The National Gallery, London | Photograph: ©The National Gallery, London
Francesco Botticini | The Assumption of the Virgin | probably about 1475-6| The National Gallery, London | Photograph: ©The National Gallery, London
This collection includes works by masters such as Fra Angelico, Bellini, Botticelli, Bronzino, Courbet, Corot, Constable, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Degas, Delacroix, Duccio, Anthony van Dyck, Piero della Francesca, Caspar David Friedrich, Gainsborough, Gauguin, Ghirlandaio, Goya, Frans Hals, Hogarth, Ingres, Fra Filippo Lippi, Manet, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Monet, Pissarro, Poussin, Raphael, Renoir, Rubens, Seurat, Titian, Turner, Veronese, Leonardo da Vinci, and Vuillard.