Who Is It?

Using the clues below, can you figure out who this person is?

1. His father worked in a brewery , but during prohibition, his father lost his job and began working in a zoo.


2. He was a wild college student at Dartmouth and edited the Jack-o-Lantern.


3. In the 1930's, he wrote for Life and Vanity Fair.


4. During WWII, he published a series of war posters for the United States.


5. Later in his life, he published fanciful children's books.

Who am I?

Books written by this famous author are available in a collection on the 4th floor of Steen library. This collection of children's books is called the Curriculum Collection. Librarians at SFA renamed the children's collection years ago because the books and textbooks from this collection are frequently by education majors when creating lesson plans. The books in the Curriculum Collection have the letters CURR appended to the front of their call numbers. Often students see this and assume it means something like current fiction. This is an easy mistake to make, but the library tradition of Curriculum Collection continues.Other info on book labels for the Curriculum Collection might include J or JR. Usually this means the book is geared for students in the 3rd grade up to the 12th grade. Another label might have an E which indicates that the book is an easy book for students from Pre-k to 3rd grade.

Visit the Curriculum Collection today and remember those times when you were younger and read and reread a favorite book, or pick out a book to read to your own children and start them down the path of loving and reading books.

	Marthea Turnage mturnage@sfasu.edu rm. 202c 936.468.1896 Subjects - Accounting, Criminal Justice, Economics and Finance, General Business, Law, Management/Marketing/International Business, Nursing, Psychology

CRS Reports Congress' not so Secret Weapon for First Class Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Library Association (ALA) today sent letters to Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), thanking them for introducing S. Res. 118, legislation to allow no-fee public access to taxpayer-funded Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports.

The CRS produces well-researched and balanced reports on a wide variety of current issues affecting our citizens and country. Unfortunately, CRS reports are not systematically made freely available to the public through the Federal Depository Library Program or any other means. No-fee public access to these reports has been a goal the ALA has pursued for many years.

The CRS home page describes its service to congress as providing independent and professional "analytic capabilities" with the capability to "integrate multiple disciplines and research methodologies. In a fast-paced, ever-changing environment,". The site goes on to say that the "CRS approaches complex topics from a variety of perspectives and examines all sides of an issue. Staff members analyze current policies and present the impact of proposed policy alternatives, even if it means bringing to light facts that may be contrary to established assumptions. With public policy issues growing more complex and political debate turning more contentious, the need for insightful and comprehensive analysis of the issues has become vital. Congress relies on CRS to marshal interdisciplinary resources, encourage critical thinking, and create innovative frameworks to help legislators form sound policies and reach decisions on a host of difficult issues."

Wouldn't it be great if you could get access to this type of information on issues not ten years after the event in a book or filtered, slanted, or chopped up into sound bites as so often happens in political reporting of the day? Well at the risk of losing my ALA membership card, I will let you in on a librarian secret. You can get access to thousands of CRS reports that have already been released, or leaked to the public. Most of them would be difficult if not impossible to find using Google. Fortunately, several libraries and organizations have created online collections of these reports for public access on the Internet. Finding the right report for your research involves choosing the right collection of CRS reports to search.

Full text PDF versions of thousands of CRS reports are available at the OpenCRS site http://opencrs.com/. They act as a clearinghouse or central access point for CRS reports however, they do not have all the reports that are available online. While this source appears to have the most current overall coverage, subject access is provided by many groups including the ones listed on the OpenCRS collections page. http://opencrs.com/collections/

According to the web site OpenCRS
http://opencrs.com/ taxpayers pay nearly $100 million dollars a year to fund the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.

• National Council for Science and the Environment/National Library for the Environment
  http://ncseonline.org/NLE/CRS/
  


• Thurgood Marshall Law Library/University of Maryland School of Law
  http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/index.html
  


• US Department of State Foreign Press Centers (FPC)
  http://fpc.state.gov/c18183.htm, PEPFAR
  CRS Reports,
  


• Franklin Pierce Law School Intellectual Property, Cyberlaw, and Electronic Commerce
  


• Federation of American Scientists Intelligence, Military and National Security
  

Two other clearing houses for CRS reports include the massive Archive IT directory (http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1078) and the web site WikiLeaks which reportedly uploaded 7000 CRS reports recently. The collection of CRS reports at the WikiLeaks site provides not only a full text search of the reports, but an alpabetical list, and (possibly the most significant contribution for research and analysis) a chronological listing of CRS reports.

For those who want to be sure that no virtual stone is left unturned you may want to do one final search with a Google Scholar. Use the advanced search feature with "Congressional Research Service" as an author. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=Congressional+Research+Service&safe=off

When you need some of the best and most current information Congressional Research Service reports a hard to beat. Now you have a secret weapon of sources for your research papers that is sure to impress your teachers and improve your grade.

This blog will self-destruct in 10 seconds…

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds@sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy/Religion, Political Science/Geography

eAudiobooks, NetLibrary and You

Check out Steen Library’s new collection of eAudiobooks online. You can view the most current list of titles at NetLibrary’s website. To get there from the Steen Library Home page, select the link Databases A-Z on the left side of the page, then from the list of databases, select “NetLibrary.” Once you are at NetLibrary's web site, select the link for eAudiobooks located on the right hand side of the page. This will take you to a list of over 500 audio books available online. You can search or browse the eAudiobooks alphabetically by Title or by Subject. New titles will appear every month. Eventually, all of the eAudiobooks available from NetLibrary will be added to Steen Library’s catalog, and you will be able to search for them there as well.

You can create your own NetLibrary user account by selecting "create account" on the top right side of the NetLibrary screen. After you create your user name and password, you will be able to access eAudiobooks and all the other online titles available to the SFA community from NetLibrary, with any computer connected to the internet. There is unlimited, simultaneous access, which means several people can have the same eAudiobook “checked out” at the same time.
When browsing the books, if one looks interesting, click on “show details” to find out what portable playing devices can be used and what file formats are available. You can listen to the eAudiobooks on your computer as well as most Mp3 devices.

For more information, concerning content available online or in print we encourage you to contact a librarian. For more information about NetLibrary you can Ask A Librarian or visit the NetLibrary Demo to learn how to create an account, search for eContent, or Download eAudiobooks http://www.oclc.org/netlibrary/demo/.

Kayce Halstead halsteadkay@sfasu.edu rm. 202g 936.468.1574 Subjects - Government Documents, Collection Development

What to Read to While Away the Summer Hours?

Okay, so vacation has not even begun and already someone is telling you to read something over the summer!! You are tired! You have been reading nothing but textbooks and information for your courses and research projects! You do not want to think about reading! I figure that will last about a week. Then, unless you are really busy with a stressful summer job, you will need to have something to do that requires just a little brain power. Doing, “Absolutely Nothing!” never feels as good as it sounds! So, here are some suggestions from a Librarian who has several hobbies—one of them being reading for pleasure.

	If you have not read Twilight, then get with the program. Everyone who is anyone has read it! It is an easy and entertaining read. The characters are engaging with lives that are so much more interesting than our own. You get lost in their world for a time. It is thoroughly enjoyable! If you think vampires are scary, then this will convince you that they are not all that way.
	I am reading a new non-fiction book, Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals. Two of the subject headings for it are: emotions in animals, and animal behavior. It is available in print as well as an Audio Book through NetLibrary. This is the first time that I ever started a book at the end. The afterward is titled: “Why Do I Still Work for the Industry?” That grabbed my attention, so I started reading there. The author, Temple Grandin, works for the meat industry. She discusses the fact that there are those who raise animals for food that are doing it the decent, humane way. In the end, she relays the fact that many cows have better lives than a supposedly pampered dog that is left alone all day. Dogs can suffer from separation anxiety when left on their own while the owner is at work. A good life for pets requires: health, freedom from physical and emotional pain, and lots of interaction and activities with humans. Read it to learn how to treat your pets and give them the best life possible.
	Are you serious? You have not read any of the Harry Potter books? Even if you have seen the movies, you are missing out. The book is always better! Take time this summer to read the first one, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is available at Steen Library. The Nacogdoches Public Library also carries print and audio book versions. Your local Public Library is likely to have a copy as well. It is the shortest at 309 pages. I promise you will be hooked! You will understand how Harry Potter became sopopular.
	One last suggestion is called The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. It would be a great “take on a week at the beach” as it is over 500 pages. However, it is so well written that it is hard to put it down! It is about a girl who loves books and is sent to live with an older couple during World War II. It does not sound too exciting, but it is! Try it out.

Have a Great Summer!

Do you have any summer book recommendations? Post a comment and share some of your favorite summer reads.

Tina Oswald toswald@sfasu.edu rm. 202f 936.468.1861 Subjects - Elementary Education, and Secondary Education/Educational Leadership

SFA Internet Books

Did you know that Steen Library subscribes to a collection of internet books called NetLibrary? There are almost 30,000 books in this collection. Compared to our general collection of almost half a million monographs, it's a small collection, but still large enough to add significant value. In doing a routine subject or keyword search in our catalog, it's not unusual for one or more of the retrieved titles to be part of the NetLibrary Collection. The oldest titles in the collection are about twelve years old, but most of the books in the collection were published in this decade. While some of the titles are duplicated in our print collection, many are not.

These electronic books are perfect for distance education students. I've never tried to read one of these books from cover to cover, but most books checked out from our general collection, excluding, children's books and novels, are not read cover to cover. One or two chapters in the book is probably all that the average student uses. In one sense, electronic books are more useful than print books. One can do keyword searching of the full text of the book. This allows the user to find the paragraphs in the book containing a particular word or phrase.

The user can print pages from the book, but each page requires a separate print command. In other words you cannot do a print all or print pages 1-50. Another drawback to the collection is that most of these books allow only one SFASU user at a time.

Faculty members who want to make assignments using these books should be aware of the limitations, ask the librarian to write specific instructions for the students, tell the students about the one user at a time limitation, and allow enough time for the assignment given the size of the class.

NetLibrary is listed on our Databases A-Z list linked from the library homepage. After getting into NetLibrary, select title or subject keyword search on your topic to see if there are books in the collection that may meet your needs. If you are off campus, be sure to begin by logging in to your mySFA account, click on myCourses, and then link to the library homepage.

The first time you use NetLibrary, you may want to set up a login for the collection. This will make it easier to use the collection off campus. For class use, you might want to set up a class login and password.

As I mentioned earlier, most of the NetLibrary books are included in the Steen Library catalog. You'll occasionally retrieve one of these titles in a routine search.

Bernice Wright bwright@sfasu.edu rm. 202j 936.468.1528 Subjects - Agriculture, Forestry, Human Sciences, Human Services, Speech/Communication

Pop Quiz. The Alarm Sounds. What do You Do?

Thursday...

April 16, 2009 8:00 a.m.

Several threatening signs were found posted on and off campus this morning. The signs found on campus stated “4-16-09 A shooting will occur today and students will die.” Several signs were also found off-campus at the Grove apartment complex stating “4-16-09 10 people will be killed and shot at the grove.” While these messages are disturbing, there have been no other indications of a threat. Classes will continue as scheduled. Police patrols have been increased today. We ask that students, faculty and staff be vigilant and notify University Police immediately if they witness any unusual activity. Any updates will be posted on this site.

What was a catchy phrase for a movie in 1994 is now a scary possibility for some in 2009. Did you know what to do Thursday? The university has detailed plans and procedures for dealing with emergencies.

Pop Quiz. Fire alarms go off in the building, what do you do?
Fire
Pop Quiz. Weather alert alarms go off, what do you do?
Weather
Pop Quiz. Hazardous chemical spill forces an evacuation the alarms go off, what do you do?
Evacuation
Pop Quiz. A gunman starts shooting on campus, alarms go off, what do you do?
Armed Subjects
Pop Quiz. Someone makes physical threats, what do you do?
Disruptive Individuals
Pop Quiz. Someone is having a heart attack, what do you do?
Automatic Electronic Defibrillators (AED)

What do you do? You should be prepared by reading emergency procedures ahead of time, and then practicing them. You can also learn about preparedness and survival in almost any situation from books and other materials in the library.

That's what you do.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds@sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy/Religion, Political Science/Geography

Quick Tips for Searching

Quick Tips.....for internet searching or the library database searching.

Help screens are often difficult to find and even harder to understand for most databases these days.

However, there are a few hints to help you get started with most databases and search engines.

1. Use the "keyword" option when available.


2. Connect keywords with [AND] [OR] or eliminate unwanted terms using [NOT]. For example, if I want to know, why the sky is blue, my search phrase could be [sky AND blue].
   
   
3. Use quotation marks to search for specific phrases such as "irregular warfare".



4. Truncation symbols are *, ?, !, #, $. The most common being the * character. For example, if I want to search for how many men cook, I would use the search phrase men AND cook*. The * character can take the place of on letter or many letters. For example the search phrase cook* would find the words cooks, cooking, cooker. cookware, cooked, cookies or cookable.



5. Stopwords are bad so do not use in, a, the, an in your search phrase.



6. Field searching means selecting the keywords in the "Title field", or "subject field" , or "author field" or something like it. These options are usually available through the "advanced searching" link or tab.

	Marthea Turnage mturnage@sfasu.edu rm. 202c 936.468.1896 Subjects - Accounting, Criminal Justice, Economics and Finance, General Business, Law, Management/Marketing/International Business, Nursing, Psychology

Guess Who Is to Blame for Punctuation Marks .!:;,"??. . .

Having a hard time with those commas or semicolons? Does punctuation, and that red (or purple) ink on your papers, give you a headache?

The authors of On the Dot: the Speck That Changed the World (Humez, 2008) lay the blame squarely on an ancient Greek named Aristophanes of Byzantium. He was the librarian at the Museum of Alexandria in Egypt. So, go ahead and blame a librarian, but not this librarian! They write that he is generally credited with devising the first system of punctuation in the Western world. Aristophanes “. . . created a system of three dots (low, middle, and high) to address a problem of vital interest to the readers of his day: how to tell where (and for how long) to pause and take a breath while reading out loud.” (Humez 2008, x-xi).

Apart from all those breathless Greeks and Egyptians, the authors caution not to judge Aristophanes too harshly for his "invention." Kathryn Lasky explains in her childrens’ picture book, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, “Before this, one word ran into another with no spaces between them. There were no question marks, periods, or exclamation points either. Reading was hard!”

just imagine trying to read the following without punctuation marks it would be pretty difficult how about typing a web address what a jumble the comics wouldnt be half as much fun either if characters couldnt react with !**!#?*!! as they often do and you all know what that stands for or so Ive heard texting would be tough carol said forget about database searching it doesnt work well without punctuation marks

Whether you think of the librarian Aristophanes as a problem solver, or a problem maker, he was a librarian who changed the world forever with, three... little.. dots.

Carol Scamman cscamman@sfasu.edu rm. 202e 936.468.1710 Subjects - Art, English, Modern Languages, Social Work, Sociology, Theatre

Find a 4 Letter Word in the Library: HELP!

• We Are Here To Help
  
  Ever get that feeling that the only time a person is really there to help you is when it is convenient for them? That is why the Research Librarians in the Steen Library are there when it is convenient for you! We have set hours when there is a Research Librarian stationed at the Reference Desk on the first floor of the Steen Library. You say you have never seen the Reference Desk? Ever notice the desk over to the left as you walk in the front door of the Steen Library? Over it, in nice, big letters, is Ask-A-Librarian. That is the Reference Desk!!
  
  
  The Librarian hours are:
• Monday to Thursday—8 a.m. -9 p.m.
• Friday—10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Saturday—10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Sunday—Noon-8 p.m.

If you do not see anyone at the desk during those hours, then ask at the Information Desk or Circulation Desk. They can tell you where we are, or even call us for you! We are here to help, so let us know what we can do for you!
Need us during times that we are not here? You can e-mail a Research Librarian at: https://forms.sfasu.edu/libweb/askalib.html

How to be Useful (Even When You are not Happy About it)

by Tina Oswald

It is nice to have a break from the classes and studying.  Many of us use that time to read things we want to read for fun and enjoyment!  In searching through the new books that come in to the Steen Library, I was struck by this title: How To Be Useful: a Beginner’s Guide to Not Hating Work. It seems that many of us “worker bees” are not happy at our jobs. This book tries to put a positive spin on being a worker bee with the message of “be useful where you are, even if you are not particularly happy to be there.” The author, Megan Hustad, gives new employees the finer points of everything job related from:

 -Why you should not listen to the advice to be yourself -to

 -How to make polite conversation.

The author accomplishes this with style and humor, so it does not feel as if she is preaching to you. She states in the introduction that she wrote the book for the newest generations,” Generation X and Y.” Hustad emphatically states that these generations are not prepared for the working world. Her book will help them be ready. Are you ready? Are you close to graduation?  Are you ready to break out into the “real world” in a big way?  If so, read Ms. Hustad’s book and you will not fall flat when you do!

 

How to be useful: A beginner’s guide to not hating work

Megan Hustad

Call number: HF 5386 .H97 2008

Tina Oswald toswald@sfasu.edu rm. 202f 936.468.1861 Subjects - Elementary Education, and Secondary Education/Educational Leadership

Ministry Of Truth : Whitehouse Web Site

Ministry of Truth

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

"Reality Control" ...if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past", ran the party slogan "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

This Process of continuous alteration was applied...to every kind of documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance.

....[documents] were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made.

George Orwell 1984

Changes in White House documents raise concern about rewriting history

news bureau
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

11/25/08

Craig Chamberlain, Social Science Editor
217-333-2894; cdchambe@illinois.edu

The Bush White House has been rewriting part of its history, according to University of Illinois researchers Scott Althaus (ALL’-touse) and Kalev Leetaru (KAHL’-iv lee-TAR-oo). It “has quietly deleted or modified key documents in the public record that are maintained under its direct control,” they write, in a report posted online this week and cited in a story in The New York Times.

They argue, however, that “updating lists to keep up with the times is one thing. Deleting original documents from the White House archives is another. Back-dating later documents and using them to replace the originals goes beyond irresponsible stewardship of the public record. It is rewriting history.”

Airbrushing History American Style (Full Report)

The authors of the report show how to locate altered or deleted documents from the public record on the White House web site. You will need to hurry because in January the site will be gone. It could be deleted or put in an archive with restricted access.

Print, books, cultural literacy, and "the classics" are as relevant today as the day the were first written.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds@sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy/Religion, Political Science/Geography

Thanksgiving: My Favorite Holiday

What’s your favorite holiday? One of my favorites has always been Thanksgiving. Who hasn’t been in a school play dressed up as a Pilgrim (or a turkey) reenacting that first Thanksgiving Day in 1621 when the surviving Puritans gave thanks for their bountiful harvest ?

According to CHASE’S CALENDAR OF EVENTS (Ref 4803 .C48), the first US holiday by presidential proclamation was issued on Oct. 3, 1789 when George Washington (at request of Congress) proclaimed November 26, 1789 “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer…”. The most famous Thanksgiving Proclamation is the one issued by President Lincoln in 1863. The beautifully written proclamation was actually penned by his Secretary of State, William Seward. http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/thanks.htm

Since 1941 the fourth Thursday in November has been our official Thanksgiving Holiday. Most of us celebrate it by watching Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and eating turkey, dressing and all the trimmings. http://www1.macys.com/campaign/parade/parade.jsp

Learn more about Thanksgiving and other US holidays on USA.gov’s American Holidays page. http://www.usa.gov/citizens/holidays.shtml

	We Gather Together

Bernice Wright bwright@sfasu.edu rm. 202j 936.468.1528 Subjects - Agriculture, Forestry, Human Sciences, Human Services, Speech/Communication