The Bard’s Birthday!

On April 23, 2009 people around the world celebrated the 445th birthday of William Shakespeare. Be sure to take a moment to reflect on what this great wordsmith has meant to readers everywhere:

Shakespeare Resource Center

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

 Check out a print or online book from one of your JSRCC libraries in the call number range: PR2750-PR3105

Complete Works of William Shakespeare  (print)    (electronic)

A Life of William Shakespeare (audiobook)

Shakespeare A to Z

Shakespeare for Students

Tales from Shakespeare (NetLibrary)

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

World Digital Library

On Tuesday, April 21st, “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions (including the Library of Congress)  . . . launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world.  The site includes . . . manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.” (Library of Congress News Release)

This “globe-spanning U.N. digital library (seeks) to display and explain the relics of all human cultures . . . serving up mankind’s accumulated knowledge in seven languages for students around the world. . . James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress who launched the project four years ago, said the ambition was to make available on an easy-to-navigate site, free for scholars and other curious people anywhere, a collection of primary documents and authoritative explanations from the planet’s leading libraries.” (Edward Cody, Washington Post article) 

Check it out at:  http://www.wdl.org/en/

 

Celebrate Earth Day 2009- Read an Environmental Classic!

Spring has sprung and it’s time to sharpen up your environmental skills along with the garden tools…try reading some of the most well-known authors of the “Green Movement” !

Carson, Rachel    Silent Spring

Dillard, Annie   Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Kingsolver, Barbara   Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Leopold, Aldo   A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There

Pollan, Michael   The Botany of Desire: a Plant’s Eye View of the World

Thoreau, Henry David   Walden, or a Life in the Woods

Waters, Alice   Edible Schoolyard: a Universal Idea

Citation Tool Now in Catalog

Example Catalog Page

 The people at the Virginia Community College System Libraries have been hard at work making our catalog a little better. 

VCCS has now added the WorldCat citation tool to each page in the catalog. 

At the bottom of each item’s page, underneath the Google Books search, you’ll find a WorldCat box.

WorldCat Box Close Up

 The box allows you to search for that book in other libraries (say, for example, if it is already checked out) as well as gives you a citation in the major formats.

Different citation formats

Of course you’ll still need to make sure the citation is correct according to the format you are using. For help, see our Citing Sources section on our website, or ask a librarian for help.