November 18, 2009

Celebrate Native American Heritage!

“Pride in Our Heritage. Honor to Our Ancestors”

By proclamation of the President, November is National Native American Heritage Month.  We celebrate the achievements of Native Americans in all fields of endeavor: art, literature, dance, music, politics, science, sports, medicine, spirituality and culture.  Their influence is felt everywhere.  The library has put on a display of recent books on Native Americans from our circulating collection for your reading pleasure.  This display fills two shelves on the first floor of the library, facing the main entrance.  These books can be checked out.  For students doing research on Native Americans, please ask at the Circulation Desk for a copy of a comprehensive bibliography of older books in our collection on this topic which we compiled a few years ago.

And here are two websites for you to check:

Native American Heritage Month (the official government site)

Native American Heritage Month (from Smithsonian)

Laptops in the library

The library is pleased to offer laptops for lending to current students.

Who Can Borrow Laptops:
♦ Laptops can only be checked out to currently enrolled students with a valid SCCC ID card.
♦ A current SCCC ID must be presented at the Library’s Circulation Desk at the time of checkout.
♦ Each borrower must complete a Laptop Agreement Form each academic year. This form details the borrower’s agreement in regard to laptop use.
♦ Every laptop borrower must sign the Laptop Circulation Log EACH time a laptop is borrowed, including renewals.
♦ Laptops are intended for college-related use, in accordance with SCCC’s Academic Computing Policy available at
http://www.sullivan.suny.edu/services/acadcomp/AUP.asp
♦ Wireless access is available in the library.
♦ If there is a problem with the laptop, please bring it to the Circulation Desk and we will try to help you.

Time limits & Availability:
♦ One laptop per patron can be checked out from the Circulation Desk on a first-come, first-served basis for in-house use ONLY. There are no HOLDS for laptops.
♦ Checkout begins 30 minutes after the Library opens each day and laptops must be returned 30 minutes before Library closing.
♦ Checkout is for a 3-hour period (or mandatory return time prior to Library closing). One 3-hour renewal is available upon request if other users are not waiting for a laptop.
♦ If you are late in returning a laptop, it may result in the loss of future borrowing privileges.

Security:
♦ Laptops should never be left unattended in the Library.
♦ Laptops may not be taken out of the Library for any reason.
♦ Laptop use is limited to the lobby level of the library.
♦ The user is fully responsible for lost/stolen/damaged laptops, components, or any
other items.

Printing:
♦ Laptops are linked to the student printer on the lobby level of the library.
♦ Do not save files to the laptop. All files are erased with every logoff.

October 9, 2009

Oh, by the way, October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month!

Giving this idea, around for several decades among librarians, a pre-eminent place on the nation’s calendar, the President issued the following proclamation.

Information literacy is not new to Sullivan County Community College; we’ve had an Information Literacy Program since 1992, and still going strong.  If you’re unfamiliar with the concept or the facts, visit our Information Literacy page on our Library Web site.  There you will find information for teachers and students alike, including a short bibliography on information literacy.

More Green Databases You May Have Overlooked

New since this past summer are two new databases devoted to all things “Green”.

Environment Complete, from EBSCO publishing, is a database containing full text for more than 680 journals and 120 monographs covering the following subject areas: green agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning and more.

GREENR, from Gale/Cengage Learning publishers, is an acronym for Global Reference on the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources.  This is a new online resource that offers authoritative content on the development of emerging green technologies and discusses issues on the environment, sustainability and more. GREENR is interactive and current, allowing users to navigate issue, organization and country portals. It’s a one-stop site dedicated to studying sustainability and the environment. GREENR has been provided by the publisher as a trial database for our college for fall of 2009.

(The third “Green” database in our collection, Green File, from EBSCO publishing, was described in this blog on April 1, 2008.  GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. The database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.)

To find these databases start at the Library Home Page, and click on “Search for Articles”; then, on the list of “Article Databases by Subject”, choose “Green Studies”.