PSC Library Newsletter

October

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What’s Newsworthy

Creepy Crafts

Join the PSC Library on Monday, October 21st from 12:00 - 1:00 PM in the Atrium for the third annual Creepy Crafts! Unwind with the library to plant some succulents. This event is free and open to students while supplies last.

We are looking for doll donations. If you have some taking up space please respond to this email. They do not need to be in good condition.

image for Lunch 'n Learn which includes a fork, pen, and the PSC logo

Lunch ‘n Learn: Día de los Muertos

Bring your lunch to the library for our Día de los Muertos-themed October Lunch ‘n Learn on Tuesday, October 29th from 12:30 - 1:30 PM in the back of the library. Afterward, we’ll have traditional treats and crafts in the Scholar’s Garden. This event is free and open to all on campus. Classes are encouraged.

How To Vote!

The library has an updated research guide for the 2024 General Election. This guide will walk you through the voting process from voter registration, making a voting plan, checking your ballot, fact-checking claims, to knowing your rights at the poll. Here are some of our favorite tools from this guide:

You can look up your voter registration through Illinois’ voter registration website. You can use it right now to see if you are registered to vote in Illinois. If not, please see the next bullet point.
This is the online voter registration application for Illinois. The website says the registration period for online voter registration will close at 11:59 PM on October 20th, 2024. In other words, you still have time to register online.
Ballotpedia’s website will provide you with a sample ballot. This is a great way to ensure you know exactly what will be on your ballot, especially candidates who are not at the top of your ballot. A judge or sheriff might have a greater influence on your life or community than any POTUS.
Injustice Watch's Judicial Election Guide will walk you through the judges on your ballot. Since most of us are not experts, this is a useful tool to see if judges are qualified, their legal background, controversies, and reversals.

If you can’t get enough of our voting tips, we also wrote a recent student blog post aimed at first-time voters, but anyone can use the information.

Something New: Search Profiles

Last summer the library changed the way we search with a new discovery layer. The discovery layer is the search engine used to find items in the library collection using our website. We now have Library Search, which replaced OneSearch. This video was created to show you how to use Library Search starting with a keyword search.

image of the library search engine. It reads Library Search: Start Here! and then has a search engine below

After putting your search term(s) in Library Search, there are a few different ways you can search for items. These are called search profiles. There is a picture below with the following search profile choices: Everything, Library Catalog, Articles, and all I-Share Libraries. I will detail what each means below.

image of the library search engine, Library Search with the word 'search term' in it. To the far right is a drop down menu with the words, 'Everything, Library Catalog, Articles, and all I-Share Libraries'

Everything: This will be your default search profile and will search all physical and electronic records in our new consortium I-Share , our collection, other items from a massive online collection, and other items besides books. Searches will filter by availability, so if you want to see results we don’t have immediate access to, click, “Expand My Results.” If we don’t have access to something, it should display a link to our interlibrary loan request form in the full record.
Library Catalog: Searches our print and eresources. This profile will show all our physical books, DVDs, most of our eBooks, and streaming media like Kanopy, Films on Demand, and Naxos Music Library. This search profile will not show articles from periodicals.
Articles: Searches for articles and other items (not books, book chapters, videos, images, or audio). Like the Everything search, this one is filtered by availability, so you can click on Expand My Results to see more.
All I-Share Libraries: Searches all our physical/print, electronic, and digital records; all physical/print records within our I-Share consortium; and all physical/print records in any other I-Share institutions. This does not include results from that previously mentioned massive online collection and no articles.

The new system has multiple ways to do the same thing. Once you put a keyword into the library search, you’ll also get these options in a menu above the search bar. Some are the same as the search profiles mentioned above, but others are different. I would like to highlight a couple that are different below.

image of a menu of additional search options. It reads from left to right: Library Search, Journal Search, All I-Share Libraries Search, Fetch Item, Browse Search, and Research guides. The print is a white all caps font on a purple background.

“Fetch item” is a citation linker. Library Search does a good job of keyword searching, and it can search for titles and authors as well. However, if I already know an exact title, or have a full citation, a citation linker is a better bet, in my opinion. To use it, hit “fetch item,” and then click the bubble for an article, book, or journal. Fill in as much information as you can. (If you have a whole citation, simply copy and paste it in there verbatim.) For example:

image of a citation linker which includes a form for the title, author, publication date, for an article, book, or journal. This form is filled in with a book title of Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson. The form is white on a purple background.

Click submit and you can search for your item.

Another feature I would like to highlight is Journal Search. As the name suggests, Journal Search will search journals. You can search by journal title or ISSN.

image of a search engine that reads 'Journal Search' and an ISSN number of 2051-6169. The search result is for the Journal of Museum Education Roundtable. The form is white on a purple background.

On the left-hand side, you can also see journal categories if you don’t have a title or ISSN.

Like anything new, this can take some getting used to. The library will continue to share new features, tips, and tricks for this new system.

Librarian Water Cooler: Beautiful Libraries

It is a joke that even on vacation, librarians visit libraries. Instead of a more typical library watercooler, I wanted to share some library joy so, I asked the library staff this question:

What's the most beautiful library you have visited?

Enjoy this tour of some beautiful libraries!

Here are their answers:

Valerie: Trinity College Library’s Long Room, Dublin, Ireland

“I went on a vacation to Ireland with my husband in 2019. No trip to Dublin would be complete without a visit to Trinity College Dublin’s College Library’s Long Room. The Long Room is the college’s oldest library, dating from the 18th century, and contains rare and archival materials. Tours are available to view both the Long Room and the Book of Kells, which contains the four books of the Gospels in Latin.

Valerie’s Personal Picture, 2019

Alex: Shrewsbury Public Library, Shropshire, U.K.

“I would pick Shrewsbury Public Library in the U.K. I had the chance to visit it with my classmates as part of my Library Building Design class when I was working on my master's degree.”

Shrewsbury Library https://www.accessable.co.uk/shropshire-council/access-guides/shrewsbury-library

Thane: Chetham's Library, Manchester, U.K

By KJP1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72741937

Grace: Williams Research Center, The Historic New Orleans Collection in Louisiana

Ten or so years ago I spent long hours there on dissertation research. The WRC is many things, not only a library. The halls of the historic building where the reading room is located are lined with art and artifact displays from throughout New Orleans' history. Arriving at the beautifully maintained reading room, ornate wooden bookshelves and little spiral staircases to the upper stacks line either side, while large windows overlooking Chartres Street in the French Quarter provide plenty of light. The atmosphere is peaceful and studious after navigating the busy streets outside.

neworleans.com, n.d. https://www.neworleans.com/listing/williams-research-center/32442/

Featured eBooks

With the General Election coming up in November, we’ve been talking a lot about voting and wrote about it for our September student blog. However, voting is only one means of civic engagement. Our October book display will feature other means of civic engagement, from protesting, to social movements, and running for office. Please stop by the library to see this display in person, or keep reading to see the eBooks.