We wanted to let you know about a new resource that may be useful for literature students. We now have online access to the “For Students” reference series from Gale’s Virtual Reference Library. This includes Novels for Students, Poetry for Students, Drama for Students, Shakespeare for Students, and Short Stories for Students. These works include summaries & leading criticism of canonical works.

You can find this listed with our literature databases at this URL:
http://www2.morainevalley.edu/default.asp?Siteid=10&Pageid=359&Categoryid=24&Category=Literature%20Resources. It is listed at “Literature for Students” in our database list.

As an example, here is a direct link to the search for “Shakespeare”: http://0-go.galegroup.com.library.morainevalley.edu/ps/i.do?ty=bs&v=2.1&u=mvcc_main&it=search&s=RELEVANCE&p=GVRL&searchType=BasicSearchForm&st=T003&qt=KE~shakespeare&sw=w (ID required for off campus access)

The library has increased online periodical & magazine access for our students, staff, and faculty. We have added two new databases that can be accessed on campus and off campus (with a valid MVCC ID). These databases are:

Academic Search Complete
Access this database on the library database page here: http://www2.morainevalley.edu/default.asp?Siteid=10&Pageid=359&Categoryid=26&Category=Psychology
Description: Academic Search Complete is the world’s most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 7,900 full-text periodicals, including more than 6,800 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,900 journals and a total of more than 12,000 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.

PsycArticles
Access this database on the library database page here: http://www2.morainevalley.edu/default.asp?Siteid=10&Pageid=359&Categoryid=14&Category=Multiple%20Subject%20Databases
Description: PsycARTICLES, from the American Psychological Association (APA), is a definitive source of full text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology. The database contains approximately 150,000 articles from over 70 journals published by the APA, its imprint the Educational Publishing Foundation (EPF), and from allied organizations including the Canadian Psychological Association and the Hogrefe Publishing Group. It includes all journal articles, book reviews, letters to the editor, and errata from each journal. Coverage spans 1894 to present; nearly all APA journals go back to Volume 1, Issue 1. PsycARTICLES is indexed with controlled vocabulary from APA’s Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.

Access to the Library’s online catalog and electronic databases will not be available from off campus from 12 p.m. on Friday, July 9th through 9 a.m. on Monday, July 12th.  The scheduled electrical work affecting the L and B buildings this weekend will require that the library’s computer system be shut down.  Access to the library’s electronic databases will, however, be available from computers in the other buildings on campus.

At the start of the fall 2010 semester, the library will implement a new search interface for our online catalog. We are offering a preview of this interface through our library research tools page: http://www.morainevalley.edu/library/research.asp. This new interface offers some useful and cool features such as

• Community tagging: use your staff/faculty ID to login at your own custom subjects to item records
• Add to cart feature: save records and email them to yourself to help organize your searches
• New visual look and feel: see more options following a search
• Connection to article databases (coming soon)

This new catalog is another step in the evolution of our Web services. We wanted to share this with you so that you can see the interface as we prepare for the fall semester.

The Moraine Valley Library and the Moraine Valley Book Store are happy to announce that the 2010-2011 One Book, One College text will be Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. To watch an online video about the book and to learn more about the program, visit our Web site: www.morainevalley.edu/ImmortalLife

Access to the Library’s online catalog and electronic databases will not be available from off campus from 5 p.m. on Friday, May 21st through 9 a.m. on Monday, May 24th. The scheduled electrical work affecting the L and B buildings this weekend will require that the library’s computer system be shut down. Access to the library’s electronic databases will, however, be available from computers in the other buildings on campus.

Congratulations to the library’s Information Literacy Librarian, Leslie Warren, on her recent election as a Director-At-Large for the Illinois Library Association. We are excited that Leslie will be representing the Moraine Valley Library at the state level.

Black Swan events are events that defy probability. They are things like wars, disease, and accidents that are highly unlikely but they happen and greatly change our lives and world. The library’s Check It Out podcast invited math faculty members Jerimi Walker and Mario Borha to discuss Nassim Taleb’s book The Black Swan. This is an interesting discussion about the unlikely things that happen all around us.

The audio of this event is available below:

Here are some additional resources on The Black Swan:

First, if you are interested in picking this up in library in the south suburbs of Chicago, here’s a link: The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb.

If you want to listen on the Web: ‘Black Swans’ and the Problems of Probability from NPR.

If you want more depth, you may want to listen to “Taleb on Black Swans, Fragility, and Mistakes from Econtalk.

The library welcomed panelists Dr. Janell Hart, Dr. Maleeha Ashan, and Anna Coco, who discussed the causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention of self-injury. This event was organized by the Behavioral Sciences Department.

The audio of this event is available below:

The Library recently welcomed Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Economist David Oppedahl to talk about the links between food, employment, and our lives. This was final part of the Library’s One Book, One College event series.

The audio of this event is available below: