Student Research Symposium Poster Exhibit

Student Survey Winners

The staff at the Coker library would like to thank the many students who took time to answer our survey! We had record participation this year, and many of your comments and suggestions will lead improvements to your library!

The winners, drawn randomly from an original LITC construction hat, are as follows:

Louchi's $25 gift certificate: Gregory Rogers

Midnight Rooster $25 gift certificate: Jessica Smith

Bow Thai Cafe $25 gift certificate: Adrienne Kennedy

$50 Grand Prize: Nicole Thompson

Thank you again! Look for follow-ups to your suggestions in this space in the weeks to come.

Goin' Mobile

With apologies to the Who and Pete Townsend, the library will be goin' mobile. We will be gradually rolling out mobile device-friendly versions of many of our popular resources.

The first, from EBSCOHost, will include several of our most popular databases: Academic Search Premier, SocINDEX with Full Text, Business Source Premier, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, Literary Reference Center, and ERIC, to name a few.

The mobile platform is designed specifically for hand-held devices and has the following features:

• Basic Searching


• HTML and PDF Full Text


• Search Modes


• Limiters


• Image Quick View


• E-mailing articles


• Preferences


• Multi-database Searching

Check it out here: EBSCOHost Mobile

One sided printing in 40 seconds

If you've ever wondered how to configure MS Word to print on one side here in the library, this brief video will show you the way to better printing.

We'll be making other instructional and tutorial videos using Camtasia Studio. Stay tuned!

Resource Review: Credo Reference

Those Coker students that have had a library instruction class or have had one of our one credit courses (LIB 101 or 301) know we librarians really like reference resources. Reference resources, whether they come from our traditional reference section or as an e-resource, are excellent places to begin research. But why?

1. These resources provide overviews of a topic, which serve to get the researcher into the mindset of that topic or subject matter
   
2. They provide search terms and ideas to broaden or widen your research
3. Most reference resources provide a bibliography or works cited list, doing some of your research for you.

With these ideas in mind, we will be taking a look at one of our newer e-resources: Credo Reference.

Credo Reference features (at this writing) 463 separate reference books containing over 3,000,000 entries. These titles are automatically updated with newer versions (if available) and new works are added frequently.

Above is the current homepage for Credo. As you can see, the basic Search is the default search type, providing simple access to the entire collection.

The next tab over features an Image Search, perfect for art students looking for specific examples of an artist's work. There are plenty of art resources including the National Gallery of London's collection and the Bridgeman Art Library Archive (to name a very few).

Advanced Search brings you a more powerful set of search parameters, such as phrase searching, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and date range limiters.

Find a Book, miraculously, allows you to search for a specific book in the collection. Note that if you roll your mouse over a title, you will get a picture of the book cover and a brief description of the book's contents (Click on the picture to make it larger):

Concept Map is a (relatively) new way of looking at information visually. Enter a search term, and Credo will output a map of concepts and terms, with your search term usually in the middle:

Each one of those terms is a separate entry in Credo Reference, and can be previewed by holding your mouse over the phrase or term (See picture above, click to enlarge).

Concept mapping is a great information discovery tool, especially in subject areas that are either new or unfamiliar to us.

Finally, the Gadgets tool offers unique information access:

This unique tool can be dragged to any part of your screen or opened in a new window or tab to be used even after leaving Credo Reference. The Gadgets provide some of the quick answers that you would expect from Google -- except these answers come from a trusted resource.

All in all, Credo Reference offers a great range of e-reference resources that are easy to use and access.

Saturday Hours

The Library will open at 10:00AM this Saturday, February 6. Come on in and enjoy a few more hours of academic pursuits.

LITTLE BLUE BOOKS on display at the LITC

Meet the Henry Ford of Literature, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, and his Little Blue Books.
Now on display at the LITC

Little Blue Books were a series of small staple-bound paperback books printed and distributed by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, a socialist reformer and newspaper publisher, in the early 1900's. These 3.5 by 5 inch books were created to fit easily into a "working man's" pocket. Their small size and low price helped them sweep the ranks of both the working class and the educated. The Little Blue Books were created in the hopes of getting common knowledge, literary works,and varying ideas and view points, to as large an audience as possible.

"At the close of the 20th Century some flea-bitten, sun-bleached, fly-specked, rat-gnawed, dandruff- sprinkled professor of literature is going to write a five-volume history of the books of our century. In it a chapter will be devoted to publishers and editors of books, and in that chapter perhaps a footnote will be given to me." - Emanuel Haldeman-Julius

But what became a highly popular source of information sank into obscurity by the 1950's, a result of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Haldeman-Julius' attempt to enlighten was deemed perverse by the Bureau, due to the collection's inclusion of topics like socialism, atheism, and sexuality. The Little Blue Books were a threat to the American people, and Haldeman-Julius was put on the enemies list.

Learn a little more by dropping by the LITC.