Subscribe to us via RSS!

January 28, 2009

rssThough it’s not new that you can subscribe to our blog via your favorite RSS Feed Reader, we’ve just added a button on the right hand side navigation to make it easier.  To subscribe, just click the orange ‘rss’ icon to the right, where it says ‘Subscribe to our blog’. 

For a list of user recommended feed readers, check out this article on the blog Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/390619/best-rss-newsreaders

If you are having trouble subscribing, or would like more information, please come in or give us a call.


Library Workshop Offerings for Spring Semester

January 26, 2009

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Sign up for a free 60 minute library workshop to improve your: research skills, grades, overvall academic achievement, and lifelong learning.  Workshops being offered this Spring semester include:

  • Research the Smart Way
  • Cite it Right – APA Style
  • Cite it Right – MLA Style
  • A Smarter Search Experience with EBSCO 2.0
  • Books Unlimited
  • Is this Web Site Credible?

To view a description of each workshop and to register online, click on Library Workshops, from the JSRCC Library’s home page.  If you would like further information on any of the workshops offered this semester, contact the Reference Desk.


Resources for Black History Month

January 22, 2009

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Check out the following resources for Black History Month:

Library Resources:

  • Library Catalog: Browse through our library catalog to find print & online books as well as popular DVDs on a wide variety of African-American and African heritage history topics and events.
  • Guide to Black History: The Encyclopaedia Britannica database guide includes – a timeline of events, biographies, places & things, source documents, images, audiocasts, videocasts, learning activies, and links to web sites.
  • Oxford African American Studies Center: Database provides access to the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895, the three-volume Black Women in America, and the highly acclaimed Africana, a five-volume history of the African and African American experience. The Center is also in the process of including contents from the African American National Biography and the Encyclopedia of African American Art and Architecture. In addition, AASC offers other key resources from Oxford’s reference program, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature and selected articles from other reference works. (Oxford)
  • African American Poetry, 1760-1900: Database provides access to the full text of the works of over 2,500 poems by 54 African­American poets of the 18th and 19th centuries, including Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poetry covers a wide range of topics, and a variety of poetic styles and types including elegies, odes, ditties, hymns, and sonnets. (Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia)
  • Issues & Controversies in American History: Database includes biographies, timelines, background articles, photographs, and maps that augment the curriculum-based coverage of historical events. Includes black history issues such as the Civil War and Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. Provides the points of view on all sides of the debates as they were promulgated at the time (Facts on File Services)
  • History Resource Center – U.S. : One-stop source of a variety of historical data including African American history. Provides integrated access to over 1,000 primary documents, nearly 100 full text journals, and 2000 images and maps. Reference sources include American Decades, American Eras, DISCovering U.S. History, and Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations. (Gale)
  • Biography Resource Center: Database provides biographies for over 340,000 people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas including notable African Americans and people of African heritage. It contains more than 435,000 biographies from over 1,000 volumes of more than 135 Gale sources such as Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedia of World Biography, etc. and more than 538,000 full-text articles from nearly 300 magazines including American History and U.S. News & World Report. (Gale)
  • MasterFILE Premier: This multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 1,750 journal, magazine, and newspaper titles. Covers virtually every subject area of general interest including African-American and African heritage history. Includes nearly 500 full text reference books, full text from 86,019 biographies, 105,787 full text primary source documents, and an image collection.

Free Resources on the Web:


Obama Inauguration at the PRC Library

January 21, 2009

The big tv in the Parham Campus Library’s current periodicals area usually stays off–we don’t have the right kind of antenna yet. But instructional support technologist John Smith set us up with a borrowed feed yesterday so the campus community could watch the inauguration.  A good number of students, faculty, and staff gathered around to watch the event.

Obama inauguration at the PRC Library