Faculty, do your students use online research databases such as Ebsco’s Academic Search Premier or CQ Researcher to complete your assignments?  Are you aware that the state has eliminated funding for these databases?

In the Los Rios District, we are very fortunate that the District Office has supplied funding for this year to guarantee that Los Rios students will have access to databases through Spring 2011, but there are no assurances about the future.  Community college students throughout the state could lose access to many thousands of up-to-date, full-text, high quality periodical articles that instruct, inform, and help them fulfill course requirements.  Distance education students will be especially hard hit.

In response to this crisis, the CCC Council of Chief Librarians has presented to the Board of Governors a “Resolution Requesting Action by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to Support Continued Funding for Online Library Information Resources and Services Needed by Students and Faculty.” The resolution asks the BOG to direct the Chancellor’s Office to actively seek other sources of funding for online information resources and services.

If you value students’ access to the databases, you can help. Send an email voicing your concerns and your support for the resolution to:

Mr. Lance T. Izumi, President, Board of Governors CCC ngriffin@cccco.edu
Chancellor Jack Scott, California Community Colleges fjames@cccco.edu
Dr. Morgan Lynn, Executive Vice Chancellor, CCC mlynn@cccco.edu
Ms. Jane Patton, President, Academic Senate, CCC jane_patton@wvm.edu

The library will be holding an online workshop on Wed., November 11 at 7:00 PM. We frequently offer drop-in orientations inside the library, but this one will be available to students at home or anywhere else they’ve got internet access. Students will learn how to find full-text articles in the library’s subscription databases; professors offering extra credit will be notified by e-mail that their student successfully completed the workshop. (For those of you familiar with the usual drop-in workshops, this one is equivalent to the “B” orientation.)

If you’re curious about the technology, we’ll be using the Elluminate web conferencing platform, which is provided to all California community colleges via CCC Confer.

We’ve got more information about this event on the library website. This is a late addition to our schedule, so please spread the word! http://scc.losrios.edu/~library/onlineworkshop

The Learning Resource Center will close at 3:00
on Saturdays beginning Nov. 14, 2009.

This change may impact students who use Library, Instructional Media, and Academic Computers services on Saturdays to study, research, use computers, view media, and borrow reserve textbooks.   Please help get the word out so students can be prepared.  This change may also impact instructors who bring classes for a Saturday afternoon library instruction session.

As of Nov. 14, regular LRC hours during Fall and Spring semesters will be:

Monday – Thursday: 7:30 am – 8:00 pm
Friday: 7:30 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Maybe we’re not paying enough attention to the American Library Association, but in the library we were surprised to learn that September was Library Card Sign-up Month.  And now it’s over… At SCC, you don’t have to worry about getting a library card–it’s bundled into your Employment Card or Student Access Card–but this might be a good time to think about the advantages of setting yourself up with outside libraries too.

Public libraries

Public libraries are best known as great places to find books, videos, and CDs, especially if you’re not looking for specifically academic material. What is less well-known is that public libraries also provide electronic subscription databases that can complement the ones SCC supplies–and in most cases all you need is a library card to access those resources from any computer (see the list of databases offered by Sacramento Public Library and Yolo County Library). A few examples:

• Sacramento Public and Yolo County Library both offer the Literature Resource Center from Gale, which like the Literary Reference Center we offer is a great way to get info on specific authors and works;
• Academic OneFile, available from Sac Public, is a good alternative to our multidisciplinary database, Academic Search Premier;
• both library systems offer NewsBank; even though for most newspaper searches you’ll want to use LexisNexis Academic from our databases page, NewsBank provides superior access to the Sacramento Bee.

And then there are resources we simply don’t have anything resembling, such as the treasure trove of pop culture information in American Decades (Yolo); or LearningExpress Library (Yolo and Sac), which offers test-prep materials for the SAT and a host of licensing and certification exams.

Here’s another tip: most public library systems in California will grant library cards to any California resident, not just locals. So if you find yourself near a library in San Francisco, try signing up for a card, which will get you access to an impressive selection of databases.

Academic Libraries

And don’t forget about our area’s well-appointed academic libraries! CSUS and UC Davis both offer special borrowing privileges to our students and faculty. Checking out up to five books at a time from UC Davis costs our students only $12.50/quarter, and our faculty nothing at all (see their website for details). Sac State’s deals are not quite as generous, but still well worth looking into.

Even if you sign up for a borrowing card from UCD or CSUS, you won’t be able to get to their databases and e-journals from home. But if you go to the campus, the story is different; all you need to do is visit one of their libraries and use their publicly available computers. Bring along a flash drive and you’ll be able to save articles you need for your research! (See the lists of databases from UCD and CSUS). And remember, Sactown dwellers, that the Blaisdell Medical Library, part of the UC Davis Medical Center Complex located not far from SCC, counts as a UCD library (see location and hours).

Special Libraries

Finally, if you’re doing some specialized research, remember that this town has a number of archives and special libraries that you can make use of. Not too long ago the Bee published a handy list of these.

Do you use any of the libraries listed above, or others not listed here? Let us know!

While this isn’t specifically about the LRC, anyone doing research these days is immersed in technology. That’s why we are urging you to participate in the 2009 Information Technology Forum, either by attending in person or by contributing comments and questions (or, in the best case, both!). The event will be held next Thursday, October 29, from 12-1 in the Student Center. You can find a form for submitting comments and questions on the forum’s web page.

New MLA Handbook

At the end of 2008, the Modern Language Association updated the rules for works cited lists, and in 2009 the new MLA handbook was published.

Major changes include:

• no URLs in Internet listings
• the inclusion of media type in all listings

Purdue’s OWL website lists additional noteworthy changes as well as sample entries.

If you would like your students to use the new, easier rules, have them drop by the library and pick up handouts giving examples of the new rules for print and Internet sources.  Students and faculty can access an overview of MLA citation style as well as examples of the new rules for in-text citation and media and other sources on the SCC library web site.  (The library has an array of handouts on many research topics.)

The library has a few general English writing handbooks which include the new rules and which can be checked out for two hours at the circulation desk.

Yes, we are a little obsessed with textbooks here in the library.  Maybe because students have checked them out 12,397 times since school started in August!

We love it when students find their textbooks in the library catalog – we have ‘em for nearly every class, as does the College Store.  But there are multiple sources for textbooks, and one of the following services may fit a student’s particular situation more exactly.  (Dutiful disclaimer: the following services may not save money and may require extra time.)

There are plenty of Internet bookstores.  Amazon, Alibris, Textbooks.com, Half.com, and Borders are just a few that carry used textbooks.  Students must make sure the book is the correct year and edition (use ISBN) and allow for shipping costs and time.

Chegg.com deals in rental textbooks, though prices may deter some.  The 5th edition of Martin-Gay’s Intermediate Algebra is currently going for $55.49 for the semester (125 days), plus tax and shipping.

A few services sell textbooks by the chapter or in electronic format.  We’ve noticed iChapters and CoursesMart, but would like to hear from faculty and students who have used them.

As an alternative to textbooks, you can save your students some cash by using open educational resources offered by the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, or by assigning public domain full-text books available through Project Gutenberg, Bartleby, Google Books, or the Internet Archive.

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The American Library Association and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression in tandem with nationwide booksellers, authors, and publishers groups dedicate one week each year to celebrate everyone’s freedom to read by alerting readers to some of the books that have been targeted for censorship in the past.

Because of “the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections,” says the ALA Banned Books Week Web site,  most of the books were ultimately not banned or restricted.

Notable challenged books and the reasons they were challenged:

• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier for using offensive language, being sexually explicit, and portraying violence
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain for racism
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker for portraying homosexuality, using offensive language, and being sexually explicit
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou for being sexually explicit
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak for portraying nudity, using offensive language, and being sexually explicit
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck for using offensive language, and portraying racism and violence
• Any Harry Potter book by J. K. Rowling for portraying the occult, Satanism, and violence

Banned Book Week highlights the importance of First Amendment rights.

This is just a note to let staff and faculty know about an exciting upcoming workshop on October 2 at Folsom Lake College.  If you came to (or were interested in but missed) the Classroom 2.0 event last Spring, this looks to be similar but with a more specifically community-college focus.

This will not be a traditional conference with presenters and spectators, but rather an “unconference,” so come ready to share what you know and learn more about using Web 2.0 and emerging technologies in education.

Visit the workshop wiki to learn more and add your name to the list of participants.

Many SCC faculty are making use of recent campus events as a teachable moment for critical thinking.  To support that momentum, the library would like to share a sample of significant information resources.

Books and Media in the SCC Library

Asking the right questions: a guide to critical thinking.  M. Neil Browne.  2010, 2007, 2004.

From critical thinking to argument: a portable guide.  Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau.  2008, 2005.

Beyond feelings: a guide to critical thinking.  Vincent Ryan Ruggiero.  2008, 2004, 2001.

The thinker’s guide to fallacies: the art of mental trickery and manipulation.  Richard Paul and Linda Elder.  2006.

How to think about weird things: critical thinking for a New Age.  Theodore Schick, Jr., Lewis Vaughn.  2002, 1999.

Find many more titles in LOIS, the library catalog.  Suggested keyword searches:  critical thinking, persuasion, logic, reasoning, freedom of speech, reasoning, ethics.

Websites

There are many.  Turn up a good quality list of resources by searching for “critical thinking” at INFOMINE, Intute or Librarian’s Internet Index (research databases of handpicked websites).

The Library has also posted a few links to published articles from library databases about the abortion debate on its Twitter stream.

Librarians are deeply invested in helping students think critically about information.  Bring your students to the library for an orientation, or send them to do some digging on their own.