It Ain't Always Easy! Using your USB Drive in the ERC

Sometimes, a key/thumb/USB drive will try to install software on the computers in the ERC in order for it to work. The manufacturer has set it up that way to automatically install software on the host computer. This does not work in here because the work stations do not extend administrative privileges to users. So, if that happens and you get an error message, you are out of luck. You will have to then find a computer that extends privileges to load that software onto the computer to get the key drive to run.

Consumer beware: Purchase key/thumb/USB drives that are "plug 'n play" requiring no software to be installed to run them.

What do YOU want?!

On our Pierce Library home page, we have a link for you to recommend books and videos for purchase. That is not just for faculty and staff----students have thoughts, too! And they are valued. Just click on the "Suggest Title for Purchase" (see below) and let us know your ideas.

Playin' Around

Uptight about a test? Just finished a humungous project? Just plain not focused? Well, there are chess sets and a mah-jongg outfit ready for service in the Reading Room. They are over by the windows on the bookcase. Have at it!

Thinking about graduation? Checklists!

A student was looking for graduate requirements this morning. I wasn't sure where to look-probably by department. But no! She found them at: http://www.eou.edu/advising/checklist/checklist.htm and there are checklists of the majors and minors on campus in pdf or Word format. How cool is that????

Looking for what magazines we hold?

When using the OPAC to find a periodical (magazine) title, you are confronted with a long list of choices that has the name of the periodical in it. For example: let's try Newsweek Magazine. Here is what the first screen brings us as a result of searching by title:











I would choose the second entry as it has the word "magazine" as part of its title. If I choose entry #2, I get this screen:I can then see in what form the periodical is available in (print, microform, online) and what years that form covers.

Someday, we are hoping that changes in cataloging rules will make these screens more useable for you.

Don't get spacey on us!

When entering your barcode to access your library account or to use a database, do not use the spaces in the number as they appear on your student ID. Just enter the number, one digit after another.

Heads up! Thumb drives can walk away!

Yesterday, a student walked away from a computer in the ERC and when she realized she had left her thumb drive (Gizmo, Lexar, whatever you call them!) she returned promptly to find the device gone. We searched high and low to no avail. Someone had simply taken it.

When library staff find them left in our USB drive ports, we secure them in the safe. Too bad more people aren't so nice.

Just a heads up!

Save Your Bacon!

A student just saved her bacon by using a federated search through the "Database by Subject" link to the databases in Business off the Pierce home page. She clicked on the "EBSCO Business Search" and found that by searching several databases at once, she was able to pull up some articles that were alluding her by searching into each database separately. It also worked a lot faster! Just a thought! There are several federated searches available and they usually start with EBSCO as the first part of the title.

Temporarily-No color printing available

The color printer bit the dust! It coughed out its last green breath last week. In one way, I am not sad. It jammed a lot and when it started its error-message mode--look out! It was seriously evil. We are looking for an affordable replacement and it will likely have a verification system to ID you as a student before copying is allowed. After all, it comes from Tech Fee dollars that you pay for! Watch this space for further developments.

As you trot off to the beach....(farm, city, apartment, dorm----fill in the blank!)

I am wistful seeing you all float away to lives empty of tests, papers, finals, and studying for a week. We will be here catching up on projects that we often can't do when you are here needing help. I am working on a project in the Archive, trying to finish some tutorials, and work on my ERC procedures manual. I never run out of things to do. Go, have fun, and be safe! We want you back soon!

Hot off the Presses?

Just read a book that made you want to tell everyone about? Know of a book that you think we should have that was recommended in a reading for class? Hear an author being inteviewed on the radio? Whatever the reason, there is a way to make yourself heard. There is a link to a form you can fill out online. It is on the library home page at http://pierce.eou.edu at this location. The link is "Suggest Title for Purchase." We would like to know what you think!

Try a three-dimensional life!

I'm with Paul Rowan, Director of Information Technology, in his letter to the editor of The Voice. I have noticed a significant increase in students using university bandwidth to check on their virtual relationships in Face Place or My Space. I wonder what would happen if they spent that time actually cultivating their real three-dimensional lives? That might leave more bandwidth to spend for those of us who are actually working productively. It is annoying to have to wait even one nanosecond longer to access databases so that Harry can see Sally's last Saturday night's escapades or to hear Joe's latest rap pick. Give it a rest....go visit your friends in real time and space.

Research 'R Us!

The heat is on! Fingers are flyin', tempers are flaring, and a whole forest has been consumed in paper this week. I have noticed that several times (more than five) this week, students are writing papers on the research computers in the ERC.

Repeat after me:

ERC=Research
Computer Lab=Writing

Students tie up the ERC machines for too long writing papers. Thanks for being respecful to your fellow students by writing upstairs.

I'm Baaaaack!

Wow! It is great to be back! Students look really busy getting projects finished up. The Quiet Zone has been packed almost all day! Best wishes for a good week of studying. Again, it is wonderful to be back amongst all the fun!

From a distance-Bette and Me

I know...you hate the song as much as I do but it alludes to my situation for another week. Struggling to even type the sentence I formed in my narcotic-filled brain, I am longing for normalcy. I had BIG surgery last week (see photo except my surgeon was a female!) and have another week to get myself together before getting back to work. I miss you guys but am hardly good company as things stand! My husband watched me take one-half hour to unpeel a flap on a caramel wrapper. The next half hour, I got the next flap undone. Yes! I did get to eat the caramel as a reward. I even tried to knit. Holy Cow! I couldn't remember from one stitch to the next where I was. I tried to go it alone without the pain meds but Wow! Slammed -- as with a ball peen hammer, freight train, Mack truck…you get the picture.

My point is that in the last half-hour before the next pain med and the first half-hour before it kicks in, I have a lucid hour to do homework for my reference class. This week's focus is on ready reference sources. I long to answer my questions in the Reading Room, running from First Facts to The Statistical Handbook of the U.S. but having to work "at a distance" I have to confine myself to online resources. I found two cool ones in our list of databases: Brittanica Online and World Almanac. They have a database search box like the other databases and you can choose the focus of the search to just World Almanac but also Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia. Once again, Pierce's ERC resources save my bacon! Bye! Pain meds R making me Zzzzzzz.

Who's your Daddy?

Busy morning! There was more searchers than neurologists looking for Britney Spears' brain! This got me to trying a few search engines and coming up with such differing results. Sally, the Boolean logic queen, has skills to tame the most unruly search engine but still gets frustrated. Ken and I had a discussion about which search engine to use and we decided that if you rely on one search engine to do your business-think again! Like Google Scholar, for instance. How do you know what resources they are pulling from? How do you know how comprehensive it is? How can you be sure that any search engine is not serving up yesterday's lunch or just corporate sites that have paid to be there? How can you trust anything you read on the internet? This left me with the thought...who's your daddy? You are! You decide what to trust by teaching yourself to look for trustworthy sites of integrity. Here's a site to start with that: Evaluating Internet Sources

Bring your own popcorn!

Lisa just hooked movie tutorials to some of our database titles in our list of databases on the library webpage. I don't know about you, but some of the databases have many elements to choose and it is bewildering to me. I have listened to the tutorials and they are illuminating. Here's what one (Academic Search Premier) looks like in the listing of the databases:

Academic Search Premier Large database of scholarly and popular journals covering variety of academic subjects; includes full-text journals back to 1985, abstracts back to 1984, peer-reviewed articles and some newspapers. Click here for a tutorial

Try it! Just click on the link and learn all about it!! Pass the popcorn!

My secret wish for cellphones in the library!

Leaping Literature!

We have a new database! It is called Literature Resource Center and is found in our database list at http://pierce.eou.edu You can search by using the author's name, by type of author (nationality, ethnicity, genre, theme, and literary movement. You can search by document type and title of a work. This is one-stop shopping for information on literature and 120,00 authors! It has timelines so that you can place an author into historical perspective, bibliographies of the author's works and about the author, reviews of their work.....it has it all! Oh, except the paper you have to write. We'll leave that to you!

Let's Be Civilized-Turn the Dang Thing to Silent!

We know you are addicted to communication devices. How do we know? The dang things go off here every day. To get into the library, patrons pass at least one sign that states library policy-"Silence your cellphone." I don't remember there being a line on the sign that says "This policy applies to everyone but you."

Let's try harder to not disturb our fellow learners! Turn them to silent when you enter. Besides, that little buzz in your pocket is pleasant!