Welcome Freshman

Welcome to new freshman and welcome back to our returning students. Here at Steen Library the research librarians are here to help you with your resource needs. The Ask-A-Librarian desk located on the 1^st floor in the Research Room (Steen Library Map) is great for walk-in research help and the phone number is 468-7299. You can also use the Ask-A-Librarian form to get help online. Subject specialty assistance is as easy as contacting your liaison contact. We are here to help you have a great and successful semester!

You are now entering "The Quiet Zone"

A new Quiet Zone hits the fourth floor of Steen Library. Looking for a quiet study space away from the bustling crowds? Check out the entire fourth floor of the Steen Library which is now reserved for quiet study, free from the distractions of service desks, study groups, and cell phone conversations. Students can find a peaceful oasis with tables, study rooms, and study carrels throughout the floor. Last fall a library survey was conducted which revealed library users were unhappy with the ongoing noise levels in the library and other distracting activities that are counterproductive to individual study.

The Twilight Zone themed “Quiet Zone” was a design created by Ms. Devon Skinner a senior from Dallas, enrolled in the Illustration class taught by Aloma Marquis last fall. Quiet Zone signage will be placed on the fourth floor and furniture will be arranged in a manner conducive to individual study.

The second and third floors are available for group studying.

Success will be determined by the self-disciplined actions of library users, but any of the library service point, like the Circulation or InfoDesk, can be told about abuses. We are encouraging all library users to enjoy this new space especially during the stressful weeks ahead before finals.

Let us know what you think about the Quiet Floor or suggestions to make it better.

Susan Clarke Head of Research and Instructional Services sclarke@sfasu.edu rm. 202g (936) 468-1459

Argue like a Pro with "Opposing Viewpoints"

Opposing Viewpoints is a database that presents both sides of controversial issues. It is a good starting point for choosing a topic, getting an overview, and finding related material. The series can be useful for writing speeches and debating. "Opposing Viewpoints" links to recommended websites, so it provides some “quality control” for the Web.

To get to it, click on the Databases A - Z on the Library home page. Scroll down to the O section and click on Opposing Viewpoints.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

Burn This Book

Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word, edited by Toni Morrison

Burn This Book has been chosen as the NetLibrary Book of the Month for October in acknowledgment of Banned Books Week (26 September – 3 October). Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of our First Amendment rights and our freedom to access information through reading.

Burn This Book is a collection of essays by prominent literary artists who discuss the importance of expressing ideas from various social and/or political viewpoints free from the fear of censorship. Emphasis is placed on both the importance of writing about real situations and the difference that writing can make. Contributors to Burn This Book include Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, David Grossman, and others.

This book is a must-have for librarians, teachers, and aspiring writers! Burn This Book will be available for free through NetLibrary until October 31, 2009 so be sure to take a look!
To Access NetLibrary via Steen Library you should first go to the Steen Library home page at: http://libweb.sfasu.edu then click on the Databases A-Z list on the left side of the page.

Once the database page appears click on the letter N or scroll down the list of databases until you arrive at the listing for Net Library.

Off campus, users will need to access NetLibrary and the library website via mySFA to gain access. After ther first visit to NetLibrary users can set up a personal account that will allow them to access NetLibrary anytime they are off campus without going through mySFA.

Other posts about Net Library on the RIS Recommends Blog include:

The Naked Roommate by Tina Oswald
eAudiobooks,NetLibrary and You by Kayce Halstead
SFA Internet Books by Bernice Wright

Erica Lopez z_lopezer@titan.sfasu.edu rm. 202j (936) 468-6270 Subjects - Anatomy & Physiology, Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Limnology, Math/Statistics, Microbiology, Physics, Zoology

Reading, Writing and RECON : Military Professional Reading Lists

Roughly stated RECON is a mission to obtain information about an adversary, or the characteristics of an area. Today military professionals must know more about their profession and the world they live in, than ever before. For many gathering this information includes books, both electronic and digital. All branches of the military have recommended and/or required reading lists. The Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) at Fort Leavenworth, has one of the better-maintained list of these lists on the web. Their page of Military Professional Reading Lists links to more than twenty-five different lists. However, between the five branches of the military, their schools, commands, and civilian government the number of lists is almost impossible to enumerate.

As part of Steen library's collection development efforts, librarians will often use tools such as bibliographies and professional reading lists when purchasing materials to support learning, instruction, and research at SFA. For Military Science, the library has made a specific effort to acquire all of the books on "The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List." (2004, this list has been superseded by the U.S. Army Center for Military History Professional Reading List) In addition many other titles from other military reading lists are part of the library collection. In an effort to make locating the hundreds of titles available at Steen Library from several of these lists, I recently created a spreadsheet this information and posted it on the web. The page "Combined Military Professional Reading List" provides easy access to titles owned by the library from many different lists. Links to some of the official lists are on the "List of Lists" page of the spreadsheet. The library owns almost all the titles from "The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List", as well as many or most of the titles found on other reading lists. Through inter-library loan any additional titles not currently owned by Steen Library are readily available to the SFA community.

If you would like to recommend a favorite title or list of titles for Steen Library, contact your reference librarian.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

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

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

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

Was Shakespeare an Identity Thief?

Could Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, have been the true author of the plays attributed to actor William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon? Was Shakespeare involved in a conspiracy to conceal his identity?

SFA grad and former Steen Library employee, Pamela Lynn Palmer,(MySpace page) explores that theory in her award-winning play, "Eclipse of the Sun: A Play in Two Acts." The promotional brochure explains, "Sex, violence, and intrigue in the court of Elizabeth I conspired to mask a grievous case of identity theft, perpetuating what may be the greatest literary hoax of all time."

USA Book News named her play a Finalist in the Theatre Arts:Drama/Play category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards. "Eclipse of the Sun" won “Best Play” in the Spring 2004 WriteMovies.com international competition.

"The University of Southwestern Louisiana kept sponsoring a contest for a play about the life and works of Edward de Vere. I finally looked up the name and realized he was the Earl of Oxford some believed might be the true author of the works under the name William Shakespeare. I did some research and found the theory fascinating, . . .and wrote my play.” She won the contest, the Miller Award Drama Category from the Deep South Writers Competition.

A prolific writer and award-winning poet, Pam Palmer authored the young adult novel, "Horse of the Dawn," now a talking book.

Born in Shreveport, LA and raised in Houston, Pam graduated from high school in Houston, TX in 1969. She finished two degrees at SFASU in just 4 years and added, “Of course my social life suffered!” She earned a B.A. in English (with honors) in 1971 and an M.A. in English 1973.

Pam Palmer worked at R.W. Steen library from 1976-1997; first, as a Library Assistant in Humanities, then in Special Collections (now the ETRC), and later in Reference/Documents. She currently resides in Valencia, California and would love to see “Eclipse of the Sun” debut at SFA!

Photo by permission of Ivan Murray, PIO, Palo Verde College

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

Losing a Friend and Colleague

He was almost eighty years old, but the call on that Sunday afternoon informing me of his death was still a shock. Don had been on vacation for three weeks and was scheduled to return to work on Monday. I still remember the first day I met him because it was my first day at work at SFA. Even though I intended to arrive early, several librarians were ahead of me as I rushed to the university wide faculty meeting held at the beginning of each new academic year. "There's Bernice, there's the new librarian." I was greeted by Don, Elizabeth Wallace, and several other new colleagues. as we walked together to the meeting. That was 32 meetings ago, and I'm certainly not the new librarian any more.

Back then I worked in Technical Services, and I soon got to know Don well. No one was more persistent than Don in making sure that the materials needed by his faculty and students in the sciences were ordered, checked in, and processed as quickly as possible. Waiting for the invoice to arrive or setting aside a tough cataloging problem was not an option if one of Don's students needed the book, geological survey, or map that he was tracking down. Music collection responsibilities were added to Don's job description a few years later. For Don this was not a burden, it was a joy. The sciences were Don's job and he was very good at it, but music was his passion.

I joined Don, Marty Turnage, Carol Scamman, Kayce Halstead and others in the Reference Department in 1991. There were no online end-user databases in those days. Printed indexes for undergraduates and expensive Dialog database searches done by librarians for graduate students and faculty were the order of the day. I worked with Don on Tuesday nights. We were almost always busy, but there were short breaks between questions when I could ask Don to show me how to use one of the reference books or compare notes with him on vacations to Big Bend or Mesa Verde.

On Tuesdays, Don would come in at 7:30 a.m. and work until 10 p.m. He took off an hour for lunch , but often just ate a sandwich in his office for supper before joining me at the Reference Desk at 6 p.m. The rest of us took afternoons off when we were scheduled to work until 10 p.m., but Don didn't start taking the afternoons off until he was forced to. There was some newfangled rule about not earning more than 80 hours of comp time per year. Ten comp days for weekends plus a year's worth of Tuesday afternoons added up to considerably more than 80 hours! Don complained about his new schedule for weeks, but a few years later turned down the option of having no night duty every other semester. By this time, being free on Tuesday afternoons was essential!

Fifteen years past the age when most people retire, Don was still arriving at his office shortly after 7:30 each morning. Don enjoyed traveling and going to operas and other musical performances. He had plenty of vacation time to do that. He still loved his work and was not ready to retire. He wasn't up on all the newest technology. He couldn't name the newest pop stars. He didn't blog or twitter. But for some students and faculty in chemistry, geology, or music, he wasn't just the best person to ask, he was often the only person that could help them.

Don was a valued colleague and friend. I won't soon forget him, and neither will many others.

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

2007 Pulitzer Prize Winners

From Bowker's Patron Books in Print at Steen Library
Winner(s):
Native Guard: Poems
by Natasha Trethewey

Rabbit Hole
by David Lindsay-Abaire

The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright

The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
by Debby Applegate

The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
by Gene Roberts, Hank Klibanoff

The Road
by Cormac McCarthy

Finalists:

After This
by Alice McDermott

Andrew Carnegie
by David Nasaw

Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness
by Pete Earley

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
by Thomas E. Ricks

Interrogation Palace: New and Selected Poems, 1982-2004
by David Wojahn

John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty
by Arthur H. Cash

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
by Nathaniel Philbrick

Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005
by James T. Campbell

The Echo Maker
by Richard Powers

The Republic of Poetry: Poems
by Martín Espada

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