Journal Finder Maintenance

Journal Finder, our e-resource locator, will be undergoing some routine maintenance this weekend and next week.

From WT Cox, the owner of Journal Finder:

The Journal Finder server will be shut down and restarted for maintenance purposes at 1 AM EST, Saturday, July 2, 2011. There will be a short interruption, no longer than 10-15 minutes, to your Journal Finder service at that time.

We will also be performing Journal Finder maintenance on Wednesday, July 6, 2011. There should be no interruption of Journal Finder service during this time.

If you have any issues, please contact the library.

Goodbye and Good Luck Donnie!

Please stop by the library before Friday June 24 to wish Donnie Quist the best of luck in his future endeavors. Donnie, who has helped and inspired many students here at Coker College, will be missed by everyone. I see a great many things in his bright future and it was a pleasure working with him!

Donnie, we will be eagerly awaiting for the follow up to Let Me Make You A Sandwich!

The Mandarin Ailuropoda melanoleuca

As a new fiscal year looms, we begin rolling out new e-resources and other products. We'll start off with two new, Gale-Cengage products.



First off, let's introduce PowerSpeak Languages. PowerSpeak isn't a database or typical library electronic resource. It's more of a standalone language educational tool, perfect for students getting ready to study abroad...or wanting to communicate with the international student down the hall from you.

From the publisher:

Students will find Powerspeak Languages the perfect solution for learning world languages naturally. With its variety of activities, adventure stories and rich multimedia, students will immerse themselves completely in authentic cultural customs and social trends. And because Powerspeak Languages aligns with world language curriculum and The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, it’s a great resource to help students prepare for and compete in a global economy.

Students will find Powerspeak Languages the perfect solution for learning world languages naturally. With its variety of activities, adventure stories and rich multimedia, students will immerse themselves completely in authentic cultural customs and social trends. And because Powerspeak Languages aligns with world language curriculum and The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, it’s a great resource to help students prepare for and compete in a global economy.

PowerSpeak comes with Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, and English as a Second Language.

Next up, is Grzimek's Animal Life is more of a traditional library resource, as it is an electronic version of the popular Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. One of the frequent suggestions on our annual student library satisfaction survey is to add more science resources. We are listening, and this is the first of hopefully several new resources to be added this year.

Anyway, here's more about Grzimek's from the publisher:

Grzimek's Animal LIfe is an image-rich, dynamic online resource that creates a true educational experience where a quick trip to find specific information can lead to the desire to explore and learn more. Users will be inspired by:

• Unequaled coverage — more than 4,000 species categorized by Amphibians, Reptiles and Birds, Fish, Insects, Mammals and Simple Aquatic Life, including information on evolution, habitat, behavior, range and more
• Authoritative, peer-reviewed content — updated regularly by a worldwide network of experts
• Ancillary topics — such as endangered species, biomes, prehistoric animals and others
• Ease of use — immersive tools like interactive range maps and an intuitive interface let users discover while also supporting serious academic research
• Media richness — thousands of photos, maps, videos, audio tracks and more
• Convenient learning tools — translation into 11 languages; ReadSpeaker text-to-speech translation; ability to download, print, bookmark, and share through popular social networking and other online applications
• Planned enhancements — curriculum correlations and tools to connect experts, educators and students

Not only will Grzimek's be useful for zoology students, but elementary education students will be able to use the ample curriculum materials for lesson planning.

Have any questions or comments? E-mail me here: trix "at" coker.edu

What's New on the Kindle

We've got a couple of new books on the Kindle.

First off, we have Tina Fey's memoir Bossy Pants. From the publisher's description:

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

I just realized that those aren't her arms on the cover. Yikes.



Next up, we have 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake. From the product description on Amazon.com:

In just over a week, a group of unpaid professional and citizen journalists who met on Twitter created a book to raise money for Japanese Red Cross earthquake and tsunami relief efforts.

In addition to essays, artwork and photographs submitted by people around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.

“The primary goal,” says the book's editor, a British resident of Japan, “is to record the moment, and in doing so raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society to help the thousands of homeless, hungry and cold survivors of the earthquake and tsunami.

Remember, students, faculty, and staff can check out the Kindle for two weeks at a time.

Writer's Studio Hours for the Summer!

The Writer's Studio, located on the second floor of the LITC, will have summer session hours!

It will be open from 4:00-5:30 Mondays and Thursdays, or by appointment. Contact Ivy Aldrich (ivy.aldrich "at" coker.edu) to make an appointment or get more information.

Happy writing!

(Gratuitous shot of Davidson Hall from Panoramio user dtmp. Note that the Writer's Studio is in the library, not in Davidson Hall. That's why we're posting it on the library's blog. Get it?)