All posts by Karen Jean Hunt

Library Hacks, Uncategorized

Spring Reading & Exam Period Library Hours

April 28, 2011 – May 7, 2011

Click here for the Spring Reading & Exam Period Schedule

The Duke University Libraries are open during all posted hours to anyone who presents a current Duke University ID card.  Use of the Libraries during all posted hours is also permitted by anyone who presents a current Duke Alumni card, a current Friends of the Libraries borrowing card, a current ID card from a TRLN university, or a current ID card from another college or university.  Entry into the building after posted general public hours; however, requires a current Duke University ID card.  All other users are welcome in the Libraries during posted general public hours. The Libraries reserve the right to deny access to any person whose conduct is disturbing to others or detracts from the research, scholarship, and study environment of the Libraries.

General Public Hours

The Duke University Libraries welcome members of the general public to use this facility during the following hours:

Sunday Mon-Fri Saturday
10am-9pm 8am-9pm 9am-9pm

Librarians, Library Hacks, Uncategorized

Change Blog Readers Can Believe In

We’re librarians: we like information. For the next month,  Library Hacks will be gathering information from you, our reader, in our first-ever feedback poll!

This is your chance to tell us a little bit about your blog-reading habits and what you’d like to see when you visit Library Hacks.

In the sidebar you’ll see an orange button that links to our short survey – we hope you’ll take a few minutes to help us learn how to create a better, more informative blog.  Of course, your responses and comments will be submitted anonymously, so click away!

We’ll be gathering responses through Friday, April 15th, and we’ll be sure to let you know what we’ve learned once the results are tabulated.

All of the other Duke University Libraries blogs will be running the exact same poll, so head over to the other blogs that you read and leave some feedback for them, too.

Thanks!

Library Hacks, Uncategorized

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan, March 2011

How technology is being used to provide information

This is a guest post by Kristina Troost, the Japanese Studies librarian and Head of International and Area Studies at Duke.  She selects books on Japan and works with faculty and students to find information on Japan.

As I see the images of the destruction caused by the tsunami in northern Japan on Friday March 11, 2011,  I find myself wanting to know more.  As I search, I am overwhelmed by the amount of information that is available.   The first information I found was Al Jazeera doing some on-the-spot reporting, but soon I learned that most Japanese TV stations are available through ustream.  Videos of the earthquake and the tsunami have been posted on YouTube (as of the afternoon of March 11, more than 9,000 earthquake-related videos and 7,000 tsunami-related videos had been uploaded to YouTube).

Satellite photographs, too, have increased our understanding of the scale of the disaster.  The New York Times links to a series of photos from before and after the quake and tsunami: you can move the slider to compare satellite images, taken by GeoEye: http://www.nytimes.com /interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html.  A series of KML files are available for download to view Google Earth (remember to take time differences into account; if night in Japan, there will be no image available).

Facebook, Twitter, Mixi and email have been used to let friends and family know of individual statuses, and technologies such as Google Docs have been used to share information – see, for instance, a spreadsheet on the status of faculty and graduate students at Tohoku University and Miyagi University: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?hl=ja&key=th1OKZ0vIq74DQI-tF-w_tg&hl=ja#gid=0.   The major cell phone companies have set up message boards to help people contact their friends, and Google has set up a person finder web app (see Google Crisis Response for more information as well as information about making donations, links to organizations, maps, and latest news).  Google Maps has been used to plot the damage to libraries in northern Japan with links to photos and their current situation, http://bit.ly/h8QAIj.  Even NHK and US cable networks have been cooperating to provide free access to NHK in many cities.

  

Cool tools, Database Tip, Library Hacks

Articles Search Gets Upgrade

New Articles Tab Tip

When you return from Spring Break, the articles search from the library homepage will look a little different. There will be no changes to the look of the homepage or the Articles tab, but your search results will reveal an improved system for finding articles.

The big improvements will be speed and a more comprehensive search. The new system creates a single index (like Google), which allows for much faster searching–results will display in around 2 seconds. The new system also includes much more content, searching over 90 percent of our journal subscriptions, giving users access to a much larger (if not complete) slice of Duke Libraries’ resources.

When searching from the Duke University Libraries’ homepage, you’ll be searching only for journal articles (the “Content Type” box on the left will be checked Journal Article.) Any subsequent search from the results page will search across all content types, adding books, newspaper articles, etc. You may search across all Duke Libraries collections simultaneously, but there may be times when you want to see only books, only journal articles, etc. You have complete control over this–-simply check the appropriate box under “Content Type.”

We are excited about this new search tool and welcome your feedback as you begin to use it.

Contact / For more information

Michael Peper
michael.peper@duke.edu

Cool tools, Library Hacks

Peace Corps turns 50 – March 1, 2011

To honor the 50th anniversary, we would like to showcase four Returned Peace Corps Volunteers currently working in the Perkins Library:

Michael Peper
Michael Peper

Michael Peper, Librarian for Math and Physics
Benin
Education (TEFL)
2003-2005

Kimberly Burhop-Service
Kimberly Burhop-Service

Kimberley Burhop-Service, Manager, Library Human Resources
Gabon
Education
1993-1995

Jean Ferguson, Head, Research and Reference Services
Poland
Education
1991-1993

Karen Jean Hunt (left) and Polly Morse (right)
Karen Jean Hunt (left)

Karen Jean Hunt, Librarian for African Studies and African American Studies
Kenya
Education
1986-1988

Cool tools, Library Hacks

African American Research Database Trials

Resources Currently Open for Testing by Duke University Affiliates

Go to: Database Trials

20th Century African American Poetry:
A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove 2011-02-28

African American Biographical Database:
The African American Biographical Database (AABD) brings together in one resource the biographies of thousands of African Americans, many not to be found in any other reference source. These biographical sketches have been carefully assembled from biographical dictionaries and other sources. This extraordinary collection contains extended narratives of African American … 2011-02-27

Black Abolitionist Papers:
This collection documents the efforts of African American activists in their international effort to abolish slavery in the United States. Covering the period 1830-1865, the 15,000-item collection records the full impact of African American efforts to oppose slavery by displaying the writings and publications of the activists themselves. 2011-02-28

Cool tools, Library Hacks

New African Studies Centre Dossier on Southern Sudan

The Library of the African Studies Centre Leiden has compiled a web dossier on Southern Sudan to coincide with the 9 January 2011 referendum.

In the referendum, southern Sudanese throughout the country will vote on whether to remain part of Sudan or secede and become a separate country. The referendum marks the end of the six-year interim period under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), also known as the Naivasha Agreement, which was signed by the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Nairobi in January 2005 to end the decades-long second Sudanese civil war.

The dossier contains titles of books, articles and online publications on civil war in Southern Sudan, the peace process, and the events leading up to the referendum.

The web dossier can be found at:

http://www.ascleiden.nl/Library/Webdossiers/SouthernSudan.aspx

Cool tools, Library Hacks

Social Justice Advocate Randall Robinson is the 2011 MLK Day Keynote Speaker

No caption available for this photo

The annual Commemorative Service for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will take place Sunday, January 16th at 3:00 pm in the Duke University Chapel.  This year’s theme, Connect to the Dream, reflects a desire for today’s youth to stay connected with, or reconnect to, Dr. King’s values and vision for a world together.

Randall Robinson is the author of An Unbroken Agony and the national bestsellers The Debt, The Reckoning, and Defending the Spirit. He is founder and past president of TransAfrica and is known for his impassioned opposition to apartheid and for his advocacy on behalf of Haitian immigrants and Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.  Frequently featured in major print media, Robinson has also appeared on Charlie Rose, Today, Good Morning America, and the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.

Duke’s MLK Program
Time: 3:00 p.m. Duke Chapel
Free and open to the public
Free Parking — Bryan Center Parking Garage

Looking for resource materials on Dr. King?  Begin your research here.

Cool tools, Library Hacks

New features for JSTOR

JSTOR
JSTOR

Beginning January 1, 2011, JSTOR will provide access to the current issues of 174 journals from 19 different publishers.

Here are a few things that you need to know about the new Current Scholarship Program (CSP):

• Current issues will be seamlessly integrated with back issue content for institutional and individual subscribers to the titles.

• New formats are available for current issues, including full-text HTML for some titles and PDF for all.

• Multimedia is available, including zoomable images, videos, audio, and GIS for some titles.

A complete list of these journals is available at: http://about.jstor.org/participate-jstor/libraries/current-scholarship-program/2011-title-list.

Cool tools, Library Hacks

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine that allows users to search for scholarly materials on a topic.  Instead of searching the entire web (like Google), Google Scholar searches the scholarly literature provided by numerous academic publishers, professional societies, universities and scholarly organizations.

Search results include citations from peer-reviewed journals, theses, papers, books and technical reports.

For the most part, Google Scholar provides citation-only results.  The full-text of an article or book can be accessed by using the Get it @ Duke link.

If you are using Google Scholar off campus,  you will need to set your ‘Scholar Preferences’ to Duke University Libraries.

Want to learn more about Google Scholar?

Go to: http://library.duke.edu/research/help/googlescholar/index.html

Cool tools, Library Hacks

PAC Presents: Brownbag Discussion in the Haiti Lab

The Professional Affairs Committee of Librarians Assembly invites you to join Haiti Lab Co-directors Laurent Dubois and Deborah Jenson, Franklin Humanities Institute Director Ian Baucom and Librarians Holly Ackerman and Heidi Madden for a brownbag discussion of the Haiti Lab and the potential for involvement of Duke Libraries staff in future humanities labs.

When:  Friday, December 3 from 11:30 am-1 pm (moderated discussion will begin at noon)

Where:  The Haiti Lab; Smith Warehouse, Bay 4

Bring your lunch – we’ll provide dessert!

Register online at:  http://library.duke.edu/events/services/instruction/event.do?id=4641&occur=8691.

Learn more about the Haiti Lab at:  http://fhi.duke.edu/haitilab.

For more info about the Humanities Labs, see:  http://fhi.duke.edu/labs.

Cool tools, Library Hacks

The Entry Point to Global Africa

AllAfrica.com-Africa News Online is a comprehensive resource featuring stories from newspapers, magazines, and news agencies.  The news service posts more than 1000 stories daily in English and French and also provides access to the Africa News Service Archives, a resource of more than 900,000 articles on Africa dating back to 1997.

For pre-1997 materials, look no further than the Duke University Libraries.  The Africa News Service was founded in 1973 by a trio of Duke graduates, Bertie Howard (’69), Tamela Hultman (’68), and Reed Kramer (’69).  The Africa News Service resource files for 1960-1996 were donated to the library in 1997.

The finding aid for the archives is available at:  http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/africa/inv/

For the latest updated news from Africa, Duke patrons can access the database at: AllAfrica.com-Africa News Online

Duke researchers, Library Hacks

Open Access to Knowledge

Open Access to Knowledge: The African Journal of Information and Communication

The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC) is an academic journal, accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training.  Formerly the South(ern) African Journal of Information and Communication, the AJIC is an annual interdisciplinary journal concerned with Africa’s participation in the “information society” and network economy.  It is both a rigorous academic journal and a practical tool to inform the continent’s ICT actors and decision-makers in government, industry and civil society.  In the spirit of open access to knowledge and scholarship, AJIC is now published online.  For additional information: http://link.wits.ac.za/journal/journal.html#iss

Featured Database, Library Hacks

Black Short Fiction and Folklore is Now Available

Black Short Fiction and Folklore
New Database

Black Short Fiction and Folklore is the most comprehensive collection yet created of stories from African and the African Diaspora. When complete, it will feature 8,000 stories and folk tales published in more than 15 countries from the mid-1900s to the present. In addition to these published works, the database features previously uncollected works and unpublished manuscripts by many authors. We have an impressive collection of fables and folktales, which arise from oral traditions that date back hundreds of years.

The relevance of the collection extends well beyond literature:

  • Fables and folktales provide unique insights into a culture’s history and memories. Social anthropologists and psychologists will find this collection to be rich in myth and societal customs. The extensive indexing even makes it possible to see how certain parables evolve over time and to compare New World fables with those told in Africa today.
  • Ideas expressed here often are not found in mainstream publications; getting novels published through traditional publishing channels was often impossible for blacks. But through short stories, these writers could express themselves quickly and distribute their works effectively through literary journals and other alternative forms.
  • Historians will find the collection to be rich in political discourse, social commentary, and polemic.