DawgBlog : Announcements

Texting the Information Commons

spfitzin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Now you can get research assistance from the Information Commons via your cell phone. You can always call us at 317-940-9235 and talk to us but now you also have the option of texting us.

Just text 265010 and in the body of the text type "buinfocommons: yourmessage." (Note: You may be charged by your wireless service provider.)

Visit http://www.butler.edu/library/ask for more ways to contact the Information Commons.

Student Training

spfitzin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Are you a student who needs some individual training on a software program? Would you like someone to show you how to add video to a presentation? Or maybe how to add material to your e-portfolio in Chalk & Wire?

You can get training through the Information Commons! Please do not visit the Commons Desk and ask for immediate training, though. Instead, send an email to infocommons@butler.edu and one of our Information Commons Assistants will get back to you to set up an appointment. For more information, visit http://www.butler.edu/infocommons.

Online training materials can be found on the Instructional Technology website, including Online Training, ePortfolio materials, and the Digital Video Support Center.

RefWorks Now Available to Alumni

spfitzin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:08:00 GMT

RefWorks-COS is pleased to announce that the Alumni Program will now be offered as a standard feature of RefWorks, providing lifelong access to users that are alumni of subscribing institutions. As long as an institution subscribes to RefWorks, alumni will have access, allowing them to continue using their personal research databases for future professional and academic endeavors.

Lifelong access to RefWorks will be an added benefit for alumni, and help academic institutions maintain the healthy alumni relationships that are so essential for donations, rankings and other ongoing involvement.

To learn more about the Alumni Program, please click here.

Banned Books Week begins Sept. 26

spfitzin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:34:00 GMT

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. This year it is from Sept. 26 - Oct. 3. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. It stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

From 2001 to 2008, of the 3,736 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom:

1,225 challenges due to “sexually explicit” material;
1,008 challenges due to “offensive language”;
720 challenges due to material deemed “unsuited to age group”;
458 challenges due to “violence”
269 challenges due to “homosexuality”; and

Further, 103 materials were challenged because they were “anti-family,” and an additional 233 were challenged because of their “religious viewpoints.”

1,176 of these challenges (approximately 31%) were in classrooms; 37% were in school libraries; 24% (or 909) took place in public libraries. There were less than 75 challenges to college classes; and only 36 to academic libraries. There are isolated cases of challenges to materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and student groups. The majority of challenges were initiated by parents (almost exactly 51%), while patrons and administrators followed behind (10% and 8% respectively).

Links

Banned Books Week 2009
About Banned & Challenged Books (and the difference between them)
Banned Books Week Video: I'd Like to Find *BLEEP*
Why Banned Books Week?
The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008

The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the 1990s

We Have the Answers

spfitzin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Are you looking for answers? We have them!

Try BUAnswers. It's like an FAQ on steroids. If you don't see your question listed, you can ask us and we'll post an answer and email it to you.

New Computers in Irwin

spfitzin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:24:00 GMT

There are now computers available to students in every quad/section of Irwin Library. We've had to use the built-in wireless capabilities of the iMacs to install some of them, which meant removing all Macs from the Reference Lab area. The end result is six more computers available to library patrons in different parts of the building.

Current Summary:

Basement: 2 PCs and 2Macs in the Education Commons, 1 Mac in the Rich Media Room, 2 PCs in the General area (where the newspapers used to be)
Main Floor: 25 PCs in the main lab (1 with Scanner), 1 group workstation in the back of the Reference Collection, 2 group workstations in the Collaborative Learning Spaces
2nd Floor: 1 PC in SE quad, 2 wireless Macs (1 usable as a group workstation) in SW quad, 1 PC & 1 wireless Mac (group workstation) in NW quad, 1 PC in NE quad
3rd Floor: 1 PC in NW quad, 1 wireless Mac in NE quad

Interlibrary Loan System Undergoing Maintenance

spfitzin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:02:00 GMT

Due to routine upgrades, our interlibrary loan system will be unavailable on Monday, July 27 and Tuesday, July 28. Normal service should resume on Wednesday, July 29. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Library Awarded Digitization Grant Funds

spfitzin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:04:00 GMT

The Butler Libraries have received a Library Services and Technology (LSTA) grant of $8,015 from the Indiana State Library to support the work of the Friesner Herbarium in digitizing its collections of Indiana specimens.

The 20th century history of Indiana's flora is captured in Friesner herbarium specimens and their collection labels. Currently, knowledge of and access to the collection is limited.

This project will create digital images of ca, 1,800 Indiana fern and orchid specimens housed in the Friesner herbarium of Butler University and post them along with associated metadata on Butler University servers with links to the Indiana Memory site of the Indiana State Library. Our goal is increase access to, awareness of and use by all citizens of Indiana.

Finals Hours

bmatthie — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:13:00 GMT

FINALS WEEK	IRWIN	SCIENCE
Apr. 29- April 30 (Wed. - Thur.)	7 a.m. – 2 a.m.	8 a.m. – 1 a.m.
May 1 (Friday)	7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.	8 a.m. – 9 p.m.
May 2 (Saturday)	10 a.m. – 9 p.m.	10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
May 3 (Sunday)	10 a.m. - 2 a.m.	10 a.m. – Midnight
May 4 (Monday)	7:30 a.m. - 1 a.m.	8 a.m. – Midnight
May 5 (Tuesday)	7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.	8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Students Being Hired for New Information Commons

spfitzin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:36:00 GMT

Students are now being hired for Fall 2009 employment in the new Information Commons which is being developed. Any students interested in emerging technologies, rich media, research skills, and excellent customer service are encouraged to visit http://www.butler.edu/infocommons for more information and to apply. (Copy and paste the link into your browser.)

Mission
The mission of the Information Commons is to provide support for Butler University students in the discovery and creation of information, especially focusing on rich media creation, technology assistance and training, and research assistance.

Description
The Information Commons is both a physical space and virtual space. It comprises the Reference area and Education Commons in Irwin Library, the Instructional Technology Commons in Jordan Hall, and the online environment of information technology and knowledge media. The Information Commons is a place for Butler students, faculty, and staff to get access to information, knowledge, technology, and research assistance to aid them in their pursuits of discovering and creating information.

Literary Criticism Online

spfitzin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:10:00 GMT

The Butler Libraries have just subscribed to a new database called Literary Criticism Online. This database indexes the Gale sets of Literary Criticism books (the large sets of brown or blue books in the Irwin Library Reference collection), including the following titles:

Contemporary Literary Criticism (all volumes)
Drama Criticism (all volumes)
Children’s Literature Review (volumes 141+, from June 2009 forward)

For other areas of literature and literary criticism, we recommend the Literature Resource Center, also from Gale, which contain much of the content of all the Literary Criticism sets owned by the libraries.

Need a Quiet Place to Study?

bmatthie — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:18:00 GMT

Irwin Library now has two study rooms that you can reserve online.

For more information please visit this link.

PressDisplay Fixed

spfitzin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:25:00 GMT

The earlier problem viewing newspapers in PressDisplay from off campus has been fixed.

If you continue to have any problems with PressDisplay, please contact Scott Pfitzinger at spfitzin@butler.edu. Thank you.

Butler Librarians and Valparaiso Librarians Enjoy Joint Retreat over Spring Break

spfitzin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:03:00 GMT

The Butler Librarians spent Tuesday (March 10th) of Spring Break on retreat with their librarian colleagues from Valparaiso University. Both schools are members of the "Affinity Group," a group of thirty-three private academic libraries chosen because of the similiarities among their schools in terms of size, student population, and curricula. The two-fold purpose of the Affinity Group is to encourage its members to share annual statistical data and to provide a forum for the deans/directors of the libraries to meet each year to discuss various topics of interest relating to academic libraries. The idea for the Butler-Valpo retreat grew out of conversations held between Butler's Dean Lewis Miller and Valparaiso's Dean Richard AmRhein at the Affinity Group Conferences. To minimize travel time, the retreat took place at Ivy Tech Community College in Lafayette.

The Butler and Valparaiso librarians shared their knowledge, experiences, and ideas relating to a variety of topics, including the changing face of reference interactions and services, information literacy instruction, digital imaging programs (including "Content DM" and "Berkeley Electronic Press"), and faculty status for librarians. Retreat participants found the sessions both enjoyable and informative!

Reception Photos from Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activity

spfitzin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:59:00 GMT

The reception for the Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Activity was held the evening of Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009. Everyone who attended seemed to thoroughly enjoy the food, atmosphere, music, discussion, and especially the speaker, Paul Valliere. Below are some pictures from the reception. You may click them to see a large version.