Library Looks Ahead to 08/09

As the 2007/08 Academic Year draws to a close the LAC Library celebrates an anniversary; it’s now one year since the library relocated many of its collections to off-site storage, moved to its current temporary site in the basement of the E Building, and since construction began on the renovation of library, Building L. It’s obvious to all at LAC that construction is progressing and that the improvements will be significant, for example:

* An expanded building “footprint” that will extend the walls on the north side

* Elimination of confining and confusing multi-floor book stacks so that library collections can be configured for easy access on the first floor

* Better facilities for library skills instruction and access to the library’s growing collection of web-based books and databases


But Building L won’t be ready for the library and its other tenants to reoccupy before 2009; current plans are for the renovation to be complete by the start of the Spring, 2009 semester. In the meantime the library will continue to operate out of the E-Building and Trailer TU at LAC, where its temporary facilities include a small collection of print books, journals and reference books (recently augmented with new titles), as well as access to thousands of e-books, e-journals, image files, and other information resources.

PCC students, staff, and faculty, however, can look forward to more immediate improvements in their library and information services as the PCC Library prepares to occupy a new building this summer. By the fall the library at PCC will move from Building GG to a new facility that will provide students with updated technology, media services and an expanded modern learning resource facility. The PCC Library Learning Resource Center will feature open computer access and multimedia areas for reference, instruction, study, and self-paced education.

The PCC Library will continue to maintain all of the materials in support of the Child Development program including children's materials. In addition, an area has been planned where the youngest students in the Child Development Center can come to look at books and have books read to them.


For more information contact: Kim Barclay, kbarclay@lbcc.edu

Library Update #54

Powerful Tools for Literary Criticism, Interpretation and Biography: The Literature Resource Center online

Through its subscription to The Literature Resource Center, LBCC Library is proud to offer students and faculty the world’s most current, comprehensive and reliable online literature database. The Literature Resource Center offers the campus community the broadest and most representative range of authors and critical views and providing more substantive biographies and full-text literature criticism than any other resource

The Literature Resource Center provides:

* Biographical entries on more than 130,000 authors — from antiquity to the present – from Gale literature sources, providing detailed biographical, bibliographical and contextual information about authors’ lives and works

* More than 70,000 selected full-text critical essays and reviews by a wide range of critics

* More than 650,000 articles from more than 300 scholarly journals and literary magazines

* More than 7,000 overviews of frequently studied works taken from Gale literature sources

* Nearly 3,000 author portraits

* Active links to nearly 5,000 selected Web sites

* Merriam-Webster’s® Encyclopedia of Literature, featuring 10,000 definitions of literary terms

Test drive The Literature Resource Center at the LBCC Library web site : click on the “articles and databases” tab on the left side of the screen, then select Literature Resource Center from the list of databases.


For more information contact: Nenita Buenaventura, Access Services Librarian at nbuenaventura@lbcc.edu

Library Update #53

LBCC Faculty and Staff, Borrow Books and Media at CSULB Library!

Live near CSULB? Need a book, CD, or DVD you can’t locate at LBCC or your local public library? Don’t have the time to get the book you need through Interlibrary Loan? You should know that for the past several years LBCC Library and CSULB have had a partnership agreement in effect. What does this mean for you and your students?


* You can use and borrow books and media from CSULB Library (a collection of over 1.4 million items) as though you were a student, faculty, or staff at that campus

* Loan periods are:
o Books, 120 days for faculty and staff, 3 weeks for students
o Media (CD’s, DVD’s, Videos) , 7 days for faculty, staff, and students

* Not included are items on reserve and periodicals; library computers and databases are restricted to one hour use per 24 hour period and require separate registration

* It is the borrower’s responsibility to return books and media to CSULB — there’s no courier service between campuses



For more information contact: Nenita Buenaventura, Access Services Librarian at nbuenaventura@lbcc.edu.

Library Update #52

Chat With a Librarian 24/7: How Can They Do That?

Working late on a term paper? Need to verify something from your class notes? An image or graph to add some visual interest to your report? Now LBCC students can connect with a librarian any time, day or night to find help with these and other questions. Just go to the library web site, click on “Ask a Librarian” on the right side of the screen, scroll down to “Virtual Chat” and click. (But before you do, notice the four other ways you can reach a librarian for the help you need.)

As devoted as they are to supporting students and faculty with their research needs, LBCC librarians haven’t established a call center, and they aren’t taking questions at home in their pajamas to maintain this 24/7 reference service. A nationwide consortium of librarians from different time zones, including librarians at LBCC and CSULB, takes the calls and provides the advice and assistance. Though the librarian may be thousands of miles away, he or she can connect to the LBCC’s library home page and use our online catalog and databases to retrieve the information that’s requested. This is another example of how today’s libraries and librarians have taken the initiative to become interconnected and interdependent to serve students better.


For more information contact: Eleanor Sonido at esonido@lbcc.edu.

Library Update #51

Library’s Art Museum Image Gallery Brings A Visual Treasury to the Desktop

A rich digital resource of over 155,000 rights-cleared images gathered from the collections of distinguished museums around the world now is available to the LBCC campus community from any web-enabled workstation. Through the library’s subscription to the Art Museum Image Gallery students and faculty can view, download, and integrate into papers and projects the visual masterpieces of ancient civilizations, American, European, and Medieval history, as well as world religions and music. Full bibliographic records accompany every image, and users can search the gallery by keyword, subject, artist, title of work, type of object, and culture/nationality.

To test drive this extraordinary database just visit the library home page, click on “articles and databases” on the right side of the screen, and select “Art Museum Image Gallery” (When working from an off-campus computer be sure to click the “Off Campus” button to authenticate yourself as a currently enrolled or employed LBCC user.)


For more information contact Nenita Buenaventura, Access Services Librarian nbuenaventura@lbcc.edu

Library Update #50

Pre- and Post- Testing to Assess Library Orientations

What do you know? What did you learn?

Library Department Head, Kim Barclay has announced the introduction of pre- and post-testing for all student orientations conducted by LBCC librarians. Students who come with their instructor for a presentation on library print and electronic information resources and how to use them effectively will be given a short (under 5 minute) test on one aspect of library research, such as the online catalog. The orientation will conclude with a second short test on the same topic to help assess whether students have understood and are able to apply the information presented.

“We want to assure ourselves that our orientations are having the desired impact on student success,” said Barclay; “test results will be a useful indicator, guiding the content and direction of future presentations as well as providing data that can be helpful with future accreditation and program review.”

Faculty perspectives will be sought too

Later this year, LBCC faculty who accompany their classes to an orientation also may be asked to provide feedback to the library about the extent to which the presentation met their needs and expectations. “It’s important to us that the library’s customers have the opportunity to tell us where we have been successful and where the content of the presentation needs to change and improve” Department Head Barclay explained.


For more information contact: Kim Barclay kbarclay@lbcc.edu

Library Update #48

Student-Tested, Professor-Approved Web Resources that Work

Librarian says tapping into the “Hidden Web” helps students make the grade

With the help of general websites such as Google and Ask.com, students have become savvy online searchers. But are they finding the research that’s going to help them make the grade?

Kim Barclay, LBCC Library Department Head says that even the most agile Internet searchers might be spending their time gathering research that their professors find questionable if they’re using general search engines alone. The problem lies in the fact that these popular services just can’t get at the right content, and should only be one part of a student’s research arsenal. She says that general search engines search what’s free on the Web, but often the relevant, most accurate (and professor approved) information resides in what insiders call the “Hidden Web”— expensive password-protected databases typically consulted by professional researchers and, more to the point, faculty.

“Free search engines are great for finding quick answers to simple questions, but when the answers really matter — for a research assignment or team project… when it’s going to impact your grades — we recommend using something more authoritative,” says Barclay. “Professors expect students to use research that’s relevant, reliable information vetted by scholars in the field, and the general Web doesn’t necessarily deliver that. But we do and it’s free to students, just as it’s free to our faculty.”

Barclay says you just need to add the library’s home page to your “Favorites” list. The library has dozens of educators’ most sought-after Internet resources — information sources that would typically cost thousands — available free to students. Whether your academic major is in the natural sciences, social sciences, literature, business, or other discipline, the information professionals at your library have selected databases that support your research. Tapping in through the library’s website means finding information that can help with late-night or 11th-hour research, from anywhere on or off campus.

Once on the library home page, click on the “Articles and Databases” tab on the left side of the screen. Each of the resources will be listed and will have a brief description of what you can do there. If logging in from off campus, click the “off campus access” link to “authenticate” yourself as an LBCC student or faculty member.

While used by faculty and professional researchers, Barclay says these Internet sources are easy to use, but it may take a visit or two to learn the ropes. “It’s like going to a grocery store if you’ve only shopped at the gas station’s food mart. It might take a few minutes to understand the layout, but once you do, you find the selection and quality knock the socks off the gas station’s convenience,” Barclay says.

“And if you really want some personal service, just visit the ‘live’ librarians at LAC in Building E or at PCC in Building GG,” Barclay invites. “They can provide expert advice on the ins and outs of research that can make all your reports and papers that much better in the future.”


For more information contact: Kim Barclay kbarclay@lbcc.edu

Library Update #49