LamontNews-list

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24 discussions

The Lamont News-List: new design, same great content

by Susan Gilroy

Greetings from Lamont Library! This note is to let you know that the Lamont News-List, redesigned and revived as a blog is now live! You can blog with us here: <http://lamontnew-list.blogspot.com>http://lamontnews-list.blogspot.com You can comment on our posts, send us suggestions for posts you'd like to see, and ask us questions. If you want the content to come to you, add LNL to your RSS feeds or sign up for email alerts when new content appears on the blog. Soon, you'll be able to share LNL posts, too: on Twitter, Delicious, and Facebook -- so stay tuned! What have we blogged about already? * upcoming RefWorks classes in Lamont * our "Where in Lamont?" contest and prize information * ways to search smarter in HOLLIS and Harvard e-resources by a simple trick called truncation. In January, Lamont turned 60. We're assembly a memory book for posterity, and we encourage you to send us your favorite outdoor shot of Lamont, your favorite story about Lamont, your most memorable experience there. It can be a photo, a video, a recorded message, or plain text. Help us celebrate Lamont. We'll feature you on LNL! And let your friends know! Forward this message to self-identified Lamonsters, or Harvard students who should know about LNL. See you in the blogosphere! Sue Gilroy, Research Services, Lamont Library

15 years, 2 months

RefWorks sessions in Lamont . . . and a reminder

by Susan Gilroy

1. RefWorks: learn it from the experts on November 29, 2007 2. Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize ................................................................................................................................... Workshop Announcement: * **RefWorks in Thirty Minutes or Less*** Interested in getting lightning-fast instruction on setting up a RefWorks account and using it effectively? This week, Lamont Librarians will host 2 workshops, each 30 minutes long, to introduce students to this new product. RefWorks is software which helps you gather and manage the references you use in research projects and papers. RefWorks can take away the mystery -- and much of the misery -- of figuring out the rules for in-text citations, endnotes, and bibliographies. It's worth a test drive! When: Wednesday, November 29, 2:00pm OR 3 p.m. Where: Larsen Room, Lamont Library Who: Steve Kuehler and Chris Lenney, Lamont Reference Librarians, will lead these workshops. **No RSVP necessary **-- just come by at one of the times above! Bring your own laptop to the session, if you'd like, or work on a computer in our Larsen Room. ..................................................................................................................... **The Visiting Committee Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting** Declare your intent to apply by Friday. December 1, 2006 Do you collect books of a certain type, on a particular topic or theme, or for a special reason? If so, you should consider entering this year's Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize Competition. First Prize is $1000; Second Prize is $750; and Third Prize is $500. Winning collections in past years have centered on the Berlin subway system, ocean liner books and memorabilia, antique cookbooks, autographed books, and "labyrinthine" literature. Last year's winning collections are displayed in the exhibit cases on Level 5 in Lamont. More detailed information about the Visiting Committee Prize, including rules for applying, can be picked up in the Lamont, Quad or Cabot Libraries. House Masters, House Librarians, Senior Tutors, and Freshman Deans have this information as well. Find out more online: http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/lamont/book_collecting_prize.html If you're interested in entering the Competition, you should notify Heather Cole, Librarian of the Lamont Library, of your intention to apply We ask that you declare that intention, in writing, by FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2005. Address your letter to her c/o The Lamont Library or send via email to this address:hcole@fas.harvard.edu <http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list> The deadline for submitting an essay and annotated bibliography describing your collection is FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007.

17 years, 4 months

RefWorks sessions in Lamont Library next week

by Susan Gilroy

Workshop Announcement: * **RefWorks in Thirty Minutes or Less*** Interested in getting lightning-fast instruction on setting up a RefWorks account and using it effectively? Next week, Lamont Librarians will host four workshops, each 30 minutes long, to introduce students to this new product. RefWorks is software which helps you gather and manage the references you use in research projects and papers. RefWorks can take away the mystery -- and much of the misery -- of figuring out the rules for in-text citations, endnotes, and bibliographies. It's worth a test drive! ........................................................................................................................... When: Tuesday, November 14, 3:00pm / 3:30pm / 4:00pm / 4:30pm Where: Larsen Room, Lamont Library Who: Steve Kuehler and Chris Lenney, Lamont Reference Librarians, will lead these workshops. .......................................................................................................................... No RSVP necessary -- just come by at one of the times above! Bring your own laptop to the session, if you'd like, or work on a computer in our Larsen Room.

17 years, 5 months

The Lamont News-List returns!

by Susan Gilroy

Greetings from Lamont Library! This note is just to alert you that the first _Lamont News-List_ of the 2006-2007 academic year will be sent out to subscribers during the week of October 16th. Lots has changed in Lamont since you left for summer vacation and construction for the Lamont Library Cafe began. This year, the Lamont News-List turns five years old and we'll mark the occasion with a new look and some new features. We think you'll like what you see! If you plan to remain on the list -- and we hope you will -- DO NOTHING. We'll automatically renew your subscription on our end. If you no longer want to receive the _Lamont News-List_, however, point your browser to this address: http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list . You'll see easy directions for unsubscribing at the bottom of the _Lamont News-List_ information page.

17 years, 6 months

The Lamont News-List April 4, 2006

by Susan M Gilroy

The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu April 4, 2006 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- April is National Poetry Month! Read, listen, discuss and discover at the web site of the Academy of American Poets, which sponsors the annual event. Point your browser here: http://www.poets.org/index.cfm ********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: -- Power Searching Tip no. 6: Words and phrases that can "power up" a HOLLIS keyword search! -- E-Research Cool Tools: Citation Indexes: these special online resources can do a lot for you! -- It's April: Baseball is back! A selection of books and films in Lamont for fans of the game -- Missed an issue of the Lamont News-List? Previous newsletters are archived here: http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/pipermail/lamontnews-list/ ********************************************************** POWER SEARCHING TIP: No. 6: Words and phrases that can give your HOLLIS searches a real boost! The more time you spend searching the HOLLIS catalog, the more apt you are to notice that there are patterns to the way information is presented and described. Catalog records, for instance, clearly observe a set of rules or conventions; thus, author names always precede titles, titles always precede publication details, library locations are listed alphabetically, and so forth. HOLLIS records use language in regular and predictable patterns as well. Next time you're searching HOLLIS, take a look at the list of "SUBJECT" terms that appear toward the bottom of the screen. Subject terms (or "headings") are always drawn from a special approved vocabulary list and librarians use them to help identify the actual intellectual content of a particular book, video, document (and so on) that a Harvard Library owns. Only certain words may be used; only certain combinations of words are allowed; and these word combinations must be entered in very exact, fixed ways. Unless you become a library cataloger yourself, you'll never be expected to master this vocabulary or know its "rules of order" by heart. By using your powers of observation, however -- by keeping an eye out for subject words or phrases that seem to appear frequently, under particular conditions or in particular contexts -- you can learn quite a lot about the catalog's intellectual design. You can also put that learning to very good use building smarter, better, more efficient searches. After all, every minute saved searching means more time for reading, writing, and critical reflection. If you're facing an end-of term research crunch, the words and phrases we've listed below may help you shortcut your way to good information. Try adding one to your next keyword search and watch what it can do. We've highlighted 14 examples, based on the questions we most often get from anxious students at this point in the semester. If our list doesn't match your need, however, ask a Reference Librarian for other options or for an alternative search strategy. That's what we're here to do! *** "CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION" Type this phrase (include the quotation marks) into your keyword search when you're interested in finding works that discuss or analyze a writer, a literary work, an artist, an art work, a musician, or a musical work. EXAMPLES: monet and "criticism and interpretation" Sidney and sonnets and "criticism and interpretation" *** UNITED STATES The official subject term for what we abbreviate as "U.S." and also call "America." *** BIBLIOGRAPHY Add this term to a keyword search when you're looking for publications which reference (that is, compile) research and scholarship on a person, event, or topic. *** "DESCRIPTION AND TRAVEL" Add this phrase to a keyword search when you're interested in finding travel literature, travel aids, or accounts of a geographic location. EXAMPLE: provence and "description and travel" *** SOURCES This term is used to identify collections of "primary" documents or discussions of writings that were contemporaneous with a particular event. These might be legal documents, letters, diaries, family papers, etc., that have been assembled and reprinted for use by students or scholars working on the topic. EXAMPLE: England and reformation and sources *** CORRESPONDENCE The official "library" way to look for letters by or to an individual or group. Remember that "correspondence" may be an option to consider when you're asked to incorporate primary source material into your research paper. *** "PERSONAL NARRATIVES" Add this phrase to a keyword search when you're interested in locating an eye-witness account of an event (e.g., a war). EXAMPLE: vietnam and war and "personal narratives" *** STATISTICS Add this word to a keyword search when you're interested in turning up numbers (i.e., data sources) on a topic or a place. EXAMPLES: developing countries and statistics pisa and italy and population and statistics *** BIOGRAPHY In addition to using this term for individuals, you can add it to a search for information on a particular place (like a country or city), an ethnic group, or a class of people. "History" is an option to consider pairing with place names and certain classes of people, too. EXAMPLES: long island and biography south africans and biography political refugees and biography *** "SOCIAL LIFE OR CUSTOMS" Pair this phrase with a country or city name, with ethnic groups or other classes of people. EXAMPLE: aborigines and australia and "social life or customs" *** "SOCIAL ASPECTS" or "ECONOMIC ASPECTS" or "PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS" or "RELIGIOUS ASPECTS" EXAMPLES: slavery and "united states" and "economic aspects" genocide and "psychological aspects" renaissance drama and "religious aspects" *** "PUBLIC OPINION" or "PUBLIC OPINION POLLS" or ATTITUDES *** You can power up a keyword search by thinking in terms of familiar forms that information comes in, too. For example, "ENCYCLOPEDIAS," "DICTIONARIES" or "HANDBOOKS" are great terms to add to a topic description when you're looking for subject overviews, term definitions, and the like. *** Sometimes, general chronology markers will focus a keyword search: "19th" (or "19th century"), "20th" (or "20th century)," etc. ********************************************************** ERESEARCH COOL TOOLS: Citation indexes: special online resources that can do a lot for you! Web of Science Citation Indexes [Science Citation Index/Arts and Humanities Citation Index/Social Sciences Citation Index] http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:socscici Which of these scenarios sounds familiar to you? a) You're starting your research for a major paper in your seminar or tutorial. Your professor (or TF), in an effort to help you get started, has suggested that you look at an article by X or consider the arguments that Y put forth in his recent book. You can easily track Y's book down in HOLLIS; you can use "Citation Linker" to get your hands on X's article. You like what you read; now you need to find more, and preferably, more of the same. What research steps can you take from here? b) You're interested in a particular gene therapy experiment. How do you find out if there have been follow-up studies, or if the results have been confirmed elsewhere? c) You're one of the many students enrolled in Science B-62 ("The Human Mind") this term. You've heard a lot about one of your professor's books, _The Blank Slate_. You're interested in finding some scholarly appraisals of it. Where can you locate book reviews? Ask a Lamont Reference Librarian for advice on information problems like these and we'll probably point you toward an online resource called "Web of Science." The easiest way to access it is under the E-Research menu on the Harvard Libraries Portal Page (http://lib.harvard.edu). Click on "Find E-Resources." Then link right into Web of Science from the "Quick Jumps" list. Despite its name, Web of Science is actually a large multidisciplinary database that also covers the arts, humanities, and social sciences. What sets it apart from databases you may be familiar with already is the different kind of searching that it allows. In Academic Search Premier, or JStor, or even HOLLIS, for that matter, your search results depend on shared words or phrases (keywords), on shared concepts (subject headings), or a shared set of common characteristics (as when you ask HOLLIS for a list of books about Shakespeare, written in German, after 1980). In Web of Science, however, it's the shared citation -- the footnote or bibliographic reference -- that is the key to finding relevant related material. The idea behind Web of Science is this: research and scholarship always build on what comes before. In other words, like begets like; follow a citation trail forward or back, and you'll get a sense of how an argument or research proposition has taken shape, been modified, augmented, confirmed, or even, under certain conditions, disproved. Citation searching can thus be a powerful complement to the more typical keyword and subject heading searches that you've learned to do in HOLLIS and other e-resources. Sometimes, in fact, citation searching will be the best and fastest way to establish direct connections between ideas. When you have a perfect article in hand, or when you're after a precision that other search methods just don't satisfy, Web of Science is certainly worth a try. Because it scours an article's sources, it's an excellent place to look for significant discussions of things you might not expect: books of consequence, films, even individual works of art, musical pieces, and more. When your topic is obscure or isn't treated in the places you'd normally expect to find it covered, Web of Science might just turn some information up. Web of Science can seem tricky to use when you're new to it. Drop by the Lamont Reference Desk and we'll show you how the database works. Or take a tour of its features on your own, by clicking here: http://www.isinet.com/tutorials/citedreference/ ********************************************************* IT'S APRIL: TIME TO PLAY BALL! A small selection of baseball books and films on Lamont's shelves **WATCHING BASEBALL: DISCOVERING THE GAME WITHIN THE GAME, by Jerry Remy (2004). Lamont | Farnsworth Room GV867 .R46 2004 The former Sox second baseman and longtime voice of Red Sox Nation for NESN explains it all to you. Filled with insights (and many anecdotes), this is the book to read if you're new to the game. ** THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF BASEBALL: HOW SIGNS AND SIGN-STEALING HAVE INFLUENCED THE COURSE OF OUR NATIONAL PASTIME, by Paul Dickson (2003). Lamont | Farnsworth Room GV875.8 .D53 2003 Baseball is set apart from other sports by many things, but few are more distinctive than the intricate systems of coded language that govern action on the field and give baseball its unique appeal. Paul Dickson, a baseball historian, tells the story of how this complicated communication system developed -- and how it's tipped the balance in critical games. ** GAME OF SHADOWS: BARRY BONDS, BALCO, AND THE STEROIDS SCANDAL THAT ROCKED PROFESSIONAL SPORTS, by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams (2006). Probably the most anticipated book of the new season and one that is sure to have immediate and perhaps long-term impacts. Bud Selig just spent a weekend reading it. When he finished, he announced that MLB was launching an investigation into steroid use. ** THE HEAVENLY WORLD SERIES: TIMELESS BASEBALL FICTION, ed. Frank O'Rourke (2002). Lamont | Farnsworth Room PS3529 .R58 H4 2002x O'Rourke (1916-89) wrote both Westerns and sports stories and published in magazines like _The Saturday Evening Post_, _Collier's_, and _Esquire_. Seventeen of his best short stories on baseball appear in this collection. The title story is a special treat, set as it is in the great beyond, where former heroes of the National and American leagues battle it out for the ultimate title. ** THE SANDLOT, dir. David Mickey Evans (1993). Lamont | Morse Music & Media Video | PN1995.9.C55 S36 1994x The story of a boy, his baseball buddies, and their summer adventures avoiding a baseball-eating dog known as "The Beast." ** THE MEANING OF SPORTS: WHY AMERICANS WATCH BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, AND BASKETBALL AND WHAT THEY SEE WHEN THEY DO, by Michael Mandelbaum (2004). Lamont GV706.5 .M345 2004 In a work that blends history, literature, anthropology, and sociology, Mandelbaum explores the ways three great sports became national institutions, when and why they each emerged, and what deep human needs they satisfy. ** A GREAT AND GLORIOUS GAME: THE BASEBALL WRITINGS OF A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI, ed. Kenneth Robson (1998). Lamont GV863.A1 G52 1998 Bart Giamatti, Renaissance scholar, Yale professor, onetime president of the National League, and (before his untimely death) Commissioner of Baseball, saw the game as a metaphor for life and for quintessentially American virtues: self-reliance, teamwork, integrity, community. Nine of his elegant and eloquent essays on the game are collected here. ** DOUBLE PLAY, by Robert B. Parker (2004). Lamont PS3566.A686 D68 2004 Parker, best known for his Spenser PI mysteries, measures the impact of Jackie Robinson's rookie year -- 1947, when he famously broke the "color line" -- through the player's (fictional) bodyguard, a WWII veteran named Joe Burke. ** EIGHT MEN OUT, dir. John Sayles (1988). Lamont | Morse Music & Media Video | PN1995.9 .B28 E54 1999x Movie about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Stars (among others) John Cusack, David Strathairn, Charlie Sheen and D.B. Sweeney (in the role of Shoeless Joe). ** THE PHYSICS OF BASEBALL, by Robert Adair (2002). Lamont | Farnsworth Room | QC26 A23 2002 What effects do stitch patterns have on wind resistance? How far does a curve ball break? Who reaches first base faster after a bunt: a left or right-handed batter? Adair makes these and other questions engaging, accessible, and illuminating. ** LUCKIEST MAN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LOU GEHRIG, by Jonathan Eig (2005). Lamont GV865.G4 E54 2005 The well-received biography of the Yankees' "Iron Horse," considered the game's best-ever first basemen. ** BASEBALL, a film by Ken Burns (1994). Lamont | Morse Music & Media Video | GV863.A1 B375 1994x The great, 19 hour documentary series originally produced for PBS television. ********************************************************* HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want to pass along to other Lamont News-List readers? All suggestions welcome! Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy(a)fas.harvard.edu. ********************************************************* You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List. If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list. Directions for unsubscribing are at the bottom of the page. ********************************************************** Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard University

18 years

The Lamont News-List March 6, 2006

by Susan M Gilroy

The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu March 6, 2006 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- A new exhibit on Level 1 in Lamont showcases prize-winning entries of the 2005 CERtoon (Carbon Emissions Reduction Cartoon Competition), brought to you by the Harvard Green Campus Initiative and the FAS Campus Energy Reduction Program. Tickle your brain and your funny bone by having a look! ********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: -- Cool Tools on Lamont Library Reference Shelves Regional English at Your Fingertips -- Power Searching Tip no. 5: Creating nested" searches in HOLLIS and other e-resources -- The E-Research Quick Search Page When a few good articles is all you need! -- Missed an issue of the Lamont News-List? Previous issues are archived here: http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/pipermail/lamontnews-list/ ********************************************************** COOL TOOLS ON LAMONT LIBRARY'S REFERENCE SHELVES **The DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONAL ENGLISH (DARE) Lamont REF ROOM PE2843 .D52 1985- What's a good old fashioned New England winter without some *black ice*, a *bob house*, *kiddly-benders,* or *robin snow*? Words this wonderful, strange, and (sometimes) puzzling deserve to be collected, codified and defined. That's just what _The Dictionary of American Regional English_ -- a compendium of who says what where -- is designed to do. DARE has been lauded as an "awesome" achievement and as "the most important work ever undertaken in the field of American speech." Such reviews are all the more impressive when you realize that DARE isn't even finished yet! It has been forty years (and two months) since the first DARE fieldworkers fanned out across America in camper-rigged Dodge "word wagons," hauling suitcase-sized tape recorders. Using an ambitious questionnaire that took 10 hours to administer, they sampled the speech of 2777 Americans of all ages and backgrounds in 1002 towns across the country. The result of this effort is a dictionary that has appeared in installments since 1985 and is now 4 volumes strong. Entries are arranged alphabetically and currently run from A-Sk. The remaining volume (Sl-Z) is slated to appear in 2008, and a capstone volume, a great index to the whole, is promised for 2010. For students engaged in cultural, sociological, and literary research, _The Dictionary of Regional English_ is a veritable treasure house of the good, the bad, and the ugly in the American word-scape. The information here draws on everything from folklore, to foodways, to children's games, to the painful history of religious and ethnic slurs. DARE features thousands of computer-generated maps that make clear (for example) just why Minnesotan Bob Dylan sang about Highway (and not Route) 61. Entries are cross-indexed, so you can chase the 79 regional synonyms for dragonfly, or track down the eight variations of dust bunnies across the United States. If you're curious about what it means to "jump the broom" or if you've ever wondered why a milkshake is a "frappe" in Massachusetts but a "cabinet" just across the border in Rhode Island, DARE is the place to go! Although there is no online version of the _Dictionary_, audio clips from the original DARE interviews can be accessed at this website: (http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html). Some of these DARE tapes, in fact, have been used by Hollywood and Broadway dialect coaches. DARE has even been consulted by forensic linguists to analyze threatening messages for clues to the senders background. You'll find DARE shelved among the PEs on Lamont Reference's "Wall of English Dictionaries," which runs the gamut from Anglo-Saxon to American slang. Be warned, though: DARE is hard to put down once you open it up! ********************************************************* POWER SEARCHING Tip No. 5: Creating "nested" searches in HOLLIS and other e-resources Even if you've never heard the term "nesting" before, the principle behind it is already familiar to you. Today's Power Searching Tip comes straight out of basic math. A long time ago, you learned to change the sense (and sum) of a string of numbers, like 5 x 7 + 4, by introducing parentheses: 5 x (7 + 4). In the HOLLIS catalog, it's possible to express -- and change -- the relationships between a string of search terms by the very same means. "Nesting" is a method of grouping words parenthetically in order to clarify the logic of a search statement. The parentheses tell the computer how to process the parts of your search: what to look for first, what terms to combine, and in what way. Here's an example: a simple keyword search for BIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY OR DEFENSE in the HOLLIS catalog will produce more than 19,000 "hits" (results). A nested search for the same terms -- BIOLOGICAL AND (MILITARY OR DEFENSE) -- yields a mere 169. What accounts for the discrepancy? The second, nested search redistributes the "weights" of each term. HOLLIS recognizes that you are treating "military" and "defense" as synonyms, and that EITHER word is acceptable, as long it appears in a catalog record that ALSO contains the word "biological." Without the parentheses, the system will retrieve items that contain BOTH "biological" and "military" OR any item at all in which the word "defense" appears. Your chances of having to sift through irrelevant information dramatically increase. Like truncation (Power Searching Tip no.1), nesting enables you to extend the reach of a keyword search while preserving a good degree of precision. Nesting is a far more sophisticated approach to searching than truncation, however. Truncation relies entirely on the flexible spelling of individual terms (famil? = family or families or familiar or familiarity). The key to nesting is logical strategy: careful word positioning and attention to the relationships between ideas. When should you use it? Whenever you need to separate primary and secondary search emphases, and whenever you can anticipate alternative search terms that might be worth a try. Examples: a. (TEENAGERS OR ADOLESCENTS) AND SMOKING b. (SMOKING OR TOBACCO OR CIGARETTES) AND (ILLNESS OR CANCER OR HEALTH) You'll find that truncation and nesting are often used together to create elaborate, even elegant search statements. Next time you feel like experimenting, see what happens when you enter this search string into the HOLLIS catalog: BIOLOGICAL AND (WEAPON? OR WAR OR WARFARE) AND (MILITARY OR DEFENSE) **And by the way: nesting -- just like truncation (Tip no. 1) -- is possible in most of Harvard's e-resources. ********************************************************* THE E-RESEARCH QUICK SEARCH PAGE When a few good articles is all you need! Quick Search Page http://e-research.lib.harvard.edu?func=quick-1 Lamont Reference Librarians see enough students each week to know that all research papers aren't created equal. A 30 page semester-long project for a junior tutorial is of a different order than an 8-12 page paper assigned in a Core. Any research paper carries with it an expectation that you'll responsibly survey the published scholarship on your topic, of course. But because shorter (and shorter term) projects serve different academic and learning ends, they require you to be reasonably thorough, rather than absolutely exhaustive, in the information-gathering that you do. Learning the intricacies of a discipline or all of the sophisticated search features of a Harvard e-resource isn't always necessary (or even efficient) when you're simply trying to uncover a few good articles to corroborate an argument or add the voice of an authority to your own claims. For projects like these, we often encourage students to turn to a Harvard resource like Academic Search Premier (http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:ebscoasp), because of its broad coverage and its multidisciplinary sweep. Or we might suggest you try a "Quick Search," one of the options available to you via the Harvard Libraries E-Research page. The Quick Search environment is comprised of 19 "sets" covering subjects from Anthropology, to Literature and Film, to Public Health. Each subject set contains 3, 4, or more e-Resources which are capable of being searched simultaneously. Three additional sets are labeled "General" (for topics that resist neat subject classification), "General Science," and "General + HOLLIS" (in case you want to search the catalog, too). The simplicity of the system makes Quick Search the Libraries' answer to Google; the quality of the information you get is as good as anything that you'll find on Google Scholar, and often surpasses it. In Google or Google Scholar, you're never sure what it is you're searching, only that you're in a vast universe of information "out there." By contrast, Quick Search sets always provide you with context, so you'll have a sense as you search of what's coming from where. Each time a Quick Search begins, the screen displays the names of the e-resources within the set you're searching, along with a running tally of the "hits" (matches) it finds in each. When the process of "fetching" this information is complete, the top results from each e-resource are combined into a list of selected articles, books, and other materials that your search has retrieved. Results will display in reverse chronological order (or roughly so); if you prefer the Google experience of "relevancy," however, you can re-sort a results list by "rank." Quick Search results are linked to our "Find it @ Harvard" citation linker software, so you can easily determine if the full-text of an article is available online. In the Quick Search environment, you rely entirely on keywords, and you can't apply limits (like language, for example), such as HOLLIS allows. Thus, you may have to experiment with several search statements before you strike gold. If a keyword string doesn't pull up the information you'd hoped for, try putting an "and" between your terms. We've found that this one little word can sometimes make a big difference in how much you find. Truncation may help you to increase your yield as well. Quick Search recognizes either the asterisk (*) or the question mark (?) when appended to a root word. And incidentally: You can set aside any item that looks promising just by clicking on the + (plus sign) to its right. When you're ready review your list, click on the My Research tab and you'll find your information stored in a folder called "My Citations." From there, you can save, send, or print. If you've logged in to E-Research before you start, moreover, there's even a way to save a search so you can rerun it at a later time. Ask us to show you how! ********************************************************* HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want to pass along to other Lamont News-List readers? All suggestions welcome! Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy(a)fas.harvard.edu. ********************************************************* You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List. If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list. Directions for unsubscribing are at the bottom of the page. ********************************************************** Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard University

18 years, 1 month

The Lamont News-List February 10. 2006

by Susan M Gilroy

The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu February 10, 2006 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Now showing on Level 5 in Lamont: entries from The Harvard College 2nd Annual International Photo Contest, sponsored by the Office of International Programs. Our exhibit cases feature the best photos taken by undergraduates who have studied, interned, or done research abroad during the past year. ********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: -- Power Searching Tip no. 4: InterLibrary Loan: the answer to what Harvard Libraries don't (yet) own -- Cool Tools on Lamont Library Shelves "Very Short Introductions": a series of books you'll be glad to know about -- Learn the Ins and Outs of Data Resources at Harvard 1 hour workshops that Gov, Ec, Social Studies and Sociology concentrators should consider -- Morse-Ls: Little Bits About our Morse Music & Media Collection Here's how to find sheet music in the Level 2 stacks ********************************************************** POWER SEARCHING Tip no. 4: When Harvard Libraries don't have it, try InterLibrary Loan It doesn't happen often at Harvard, but there's always the chance you'll have the experience sometime in your undergraduate career. You come across a book or article that looks perfect for your research--that may even be essential to it. You're elated at your good fortune. You click the "Find it @ Harvard" button or click into the HOLLIS catalog . . . only to discover that the unthinkable has happened. Not one of the Harvard Libraries owns the item that you need. If you find yourself in this predicament, your answer is a service called INTERLIBRARY LOAN (ILL). Through arrangements that Harvard has made with libraries across the country (and even throughout the world), we can usually borrow the material for you to use (unless special restrictions apply). As if that weren't enough, ILL is provided to you completely free of charge. Widener Library takes care of processing all ILL requests for faculty, staff and students of FAS. To initiate the process, you fill out the online form you'll find here: https://illiad.hcl.harvard.edu/. The first time you use the ILL service, you'll have to set up a personal login and password, but that's an easy thing to do. The system will direct you from there. The key to using InterLibrary Loan effectively is your ability to plan ahead and to start your research early, so you'll have some time to spare. ILL materials can take as long as two weeks to get here and if they're coming from overseas, you could have a longer wait time. You'll be automatically notified by email or phone (whichever way you prefer) when the item or items you've requested arrive. ILL is also a good option for getting Countway Medical Library materials, by the way, and when you're busy, it's a great alternative to that long M2 Longwood shuttle ride! ********************************************************** COOL TOOLS ON THE LAMONT LIBRARY SHELVES A (not so) short introduction to a series called "Very Short Introductions" _Very Short Introductions_ are a series of books, published by Oxford University Press, that we've been adding to our collection as fast as we can. The series is enormously popular with Harvard students and many of the Very Short Introductions have made their way onto course reading lists (and Lamont's Reserves shelves). They're not all *that* short, of course; most titles average about 162 pages. Written by experts, _Very Short Introductions_ tackle central problems and issues in over 100 key subjects. The range of things covered is wide (and impressive), so whether you're into pre-Socratic philosophy or particle physics, Heidegger or hieroglyphs, modern Ireland or Roman Britain, you'll nearly always find a title suited to your interest. Don't think "very short" is the equivalent to "dumbed down," however. VSIs distill challenging topics and present them in readable but intellectually satisfying form. Jon Lanham, our Chief Collections Officer here in Lamont, tells us that there's "nothing better as a series" than these_ Very Short Introductions_. "Almost universally, the volume nails the subject." So what might you use _Very Short Introductions_ for? ** You're taking a course here at Harvard that covers a particular topic, individual, or movement and you'd like to get an overview of that subject. ** You're a freshman thinking of concentrating in one of the (many) academic fields covered by VSIs. You'd like to know a little more about what people in this field do, what they care about, and how they look at the world. ** You're a senior boning up for oral examinations and want to refresh your memory of certain theories, thinkers, and the like. ** You like learning new things--or learning "enough" about them to feel well-informed. ** You're just looking for something good to read. How do you find _Very Short Introductions_? In HOLLIS, you have two options from the Expanded Search screen: ** You can do a TITLE KEYWORDS search for: "very short introduction" (just like that--include the quotation marks). ** You can do a SERIES KEYWORDS search for: "very short introductions" (just like that--note the pluralized form). You can see all of the titles in the _Very Short Introductions_ series, including ones that are coming out this year and those that are planned for the future, at the Oxford site: http://www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/titles/. We'll be adding them all to Lamont's collection just as soon as they're published! ********************************************************** LEARN TO USE DATA SOURCES AT HARVARD THIS TERM These one-hour workshops are perfect for Gov, Economics, and Sociology Concentrators The Harvard-MIT Data Center is sponsoring a series of workshops throughout the Spring term. Taught by Meghan Dolan, a Data Reference Librarian from Littauer Library, these courses cover everything from quick look-up sources to micro-level datasets. Different workshops, with different emphases, are given for students working in Government, Economics, and Sociology. You can view handouts from past workshops, see a list of workshop offerings, and sign up for one or more of them by going here: http://www.hmdc.harvard.edu/jsp/topic.jsp?id=36&bct=dData%2BServices.s7.t36 ********************************************************* MORSE-Ls: LITTLE BITS ABOUT MORSE MUSIC & MEDIA Tips for finding sheet music in the Level 2 stacks Looking for sheet music--for your favorite Ray Charles song, a Broadway musical, a Count Basie classic or a Beatles tune? You won't often find individual song titles listed in the HOLLIS catalog, but don't take that to mean that they're not available. In fact, Morse Music & Media, on Level 2 in Lamont, has lots of anthologies of printed music and popular song lyrics. These run the gamut, from medieval folk melodies to union songs of the 1930s and protest songs of the 1960s. Heavy metal, easy listening, instrumental music, and even a collection of television show theme songs can be found on the Morse shelves, too. Popular music anthologies are grouped together in Morse Music and Media, and we encourage you to drop by to peruse the collection. General anthologies begin with the Dewey decimal call number 788.2. American popular music begins with the call number 788.83. When you're not sure whether a song you're after has been anthologized (or in what anthology), you should pay a visit to the Lamont Reference collection. Among the music finding aids we can point you to is _The Popular Song Index_ (REF. ROOM ML128 S3 H4). Use it to identify the collection in which the song was published; then, use HOLLIS to track the collection itself down. How do you search for recordings of individual songs in HOLLIS? We'll tell you next time. Stay tuned! ********************************************************* HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want to pass along to other Lamont News-List readers? All suggestions welcome! Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy at fas.harvard.edu. ********************************************************* You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List. If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list. Directions for unsubscribing are at the bottom of the page. ********************************************************** Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard University

18 years, 2 months

The Lamont News-List Special Intersession Issue January 23,2006

by Susan M Gilroy

The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu January 23, 2006 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Be well, stay safe, have fun and rest up! See you back in Lamont on February 1st! ********************************************************** THE INTERSESSION *R & R* SPECIAL ISSUE: -- Books That Harvard Students Recommend 16 titles for Intersession reading -- New Films in Morse Music & Media Recent and classic film titles we've acquired -- Lamont Library Hours During Intersession Just in case you plan to stay in town ********************************************************** BOOKS FOR INTERSESSION READING 16 titles that Harvard Students recommend ** WARPED PASSAGES: UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE'S HIDDEN DIMENSIONS, by Lisa Randall. Ecco, 2005. In her effort to translate theoretical physics into terms that ordinary readers can understand, Harvard professor Lisa Randall follows in the tradition of popular science writers like Stephen Hawking (_A Brief History of Time_) and Brian Greene (_The Elegant Universe_). In _Warped Passages_, she considers the possibility that the world we perceive in the three spatial dimensions and in time may actually be composed of many, many more. One consequence of extradimensionality is the perspective it offers on a host of cosmic quandaries, such as why gravity is so much weaker than magnetism. Lin Cong '09 attended a public lecture by Professor Randall and was "really intrigued" by what he heard. _Warped Passages_, which was a _New York Times_ "Notable Book" in 2005, is something Lin wants to read as soon as he has free time. ** DECLINE AND FALL, by Evelyn Waugh. Grosset and Dunlap, 1929. Alex Lemann, an Adams House senior, describes _Decline and Fall_ as "something lighthearted to chase away those mid-winter exam period doldrums." Waugh's first novel, it is also considered his finest comic production. Alex writes that _Decline and Fall_ is a "hilarious, meandering tale about a young man [Paul Pennyfeather] who is unfairly kicked out of Oxford for bad behavior and decides to become a prep-school teacher." By the end of the novel, Paul is back at Oxford, having met a series of strange characters and having had a series of odd experiences along the way. ** A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET, by Madeleine L'Engle. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1978. This is the third book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic children's collection, the Time Quintet. Fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace Murry, whom readers first met in _A Wrinkle in Time_, has a little task to accomplish as the novel opens. In 24 hours, a mad dictator will destroy the universe by declaring nuclear war -- unless Charles Wallace can go back in time to change the lives of one of four Might-Have-Beens in history. The freshman who recommends _A Swiftly Tilting Planet_ points out that while it is a "kid's book, that doesn't stop it from being an incredibly deep story. The book is a combination of science fiction and fantasy, and L'Engle really involves the reader in the quest." ** WORD CIRCUS, by Richard Lederer. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1998. "Words teetertottering, words spinning their unicycles, words breathing fire. . ." This is how Marc Janke '08 characterizes _Word Circus_, by Richard Lederer. It is, he writes,"a book about anything and everything about the English language--homophones, anagrams, acrostics, spoonerisms, anachronisms . . . it's all there." _Word Circus_ presents "more English contortions than any one person can possibly handle in one sitting." But it sure sounds like a fun book! ** PANTHER IN THE BASEMENT, by Amos Oz. Trans. Nicholas de Lange. Harcourt Brace, 1997. Hezzy Smith '08 describes the plot of Oz's novel, set in 1947 Jerusalem, this way: "At the nexus of language, politics and social rapport, a young, word-hungry Israeli boy encounters and befriends a British soldier in the company occupying his homeland. He fancies himself an intelligence operative in order to justify his growing attachment, but ultimately has to face the question of whether one can forge personal alliances across political lines without eroding one's identity." When _Panther in the Basement_ appeared in an English translation in 1997, one reviewer even hailed it as "further evidence of Oz's increasing claim to serious Nobel Prize consideration." ** PASTWATCH: THE REDEMPTION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, by Orson Scott Card. TOR, 1996. It's the 23rd century. Three travelers, who belong to an organization called "Pastwatch," journey back from the ruined and doomed earth they inhabit to the time of Columbus's landing in North America. They hope to alter events so that the contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples will prove less disastrous. Orson Scott Card is probably best known for his award-winning novel, _Ender's Game_, and its sequel, _Ender's Shadow_. But one News-List reader is just as impressed by _Pastwatch_, which is equal parts sci-fi and alternative history. "It explores the always interesting topic of what 'might have been,'" writes Kimberly Soo '09. "Plus, it was very neat to see how big a turning point 1492 was." If you like _Pastwatch_, Kimberly suggests you also dip into _MAPS IN THE MIRROR: THE SHORT FICTION OF ORSON SCOTT CARD_ (TOR, 1990). It's a collection of 46 stories which range from fantasy and sci-fi to horror and theological speculation. "Card has a perspective on life that's pretty different from a lot of other authors I've read and it's pretty cool to see how he explores life using these stories." ** HARVARD YARD, by William Martin. Warner Books, 2003. Legend has it (in William Martin's novel, at least) that William Shakespeare brought John Harvard's parents together and wrote a play for them called "Love's Labours Won." That play was widely assumed to have been lost in the fire that destroyed the Harvard Library in the late 1600s. However, Harvard had wisely bequeathed the prized manuscript to his best student, young Isaac Wedge, cautioning him to safeguard the play until its artistic value could be appreciated. After 12 generations of Wedge heirs, the play's whereabouts have been lost -- until, that is, an enterprising Harvard graduate student unearths clues that suggest the play may still exist, secreted somewhere in Harvard Yard. "It's very enjoyable," according to Philip Kenner '09, and "even more so for students who attend Harvard. It features all of our favorite buildings on campus and is a fast read." ** GENIUS: THE LIFE AND SCIENCE OF RICHARD FEYNMAN, by James Gleick. Pantheon Books, 1992. James Gleick is considered one of best popular science writers around and when his biography of Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Fenyman was published in 1992, the _Washington Post_ called it a "jewel." Richard Feynman's career touched on every area of modern science, from the Manhattan Project to quantum electromechanics; and it was his now famous experiment, conducted on live TV, that solved the mystery of the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1985. Like any good biographer, Gleick helps us to know something about the man who was once described as a "cross between Groucho Marx and Albert Einstein." More importanly, however, Gleick affords us a fascinating glimpse into how science is done by a brilliant mind. _Genius_ was recommended by freshman Lin Cong. ** IN COLD BLOOD: A TRUE ACCOUNT OF A MULTIPLE MURDER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, by Truman Capote. New American Library, 1965. The release of the movie _Capote_ last fall has renewed interest in the 1965 book that many consider this writer's masterwork. _In Cold Blood_ created a new genre -- a literary hybrid that Capote himself dubbed "the nonfiction novel." It details the brutal 1959 murder of four members of a Kansas farming family, the arrest of the two men responsible for the crime, and their eventual executions. Recommended by a Lowell House junior, who calls it "chilling and absolutely engrossing at the same time." ** THE EVOLUTION-CREATION STRUGGLE, by Marc Ruse. Harvard U P, 2005. Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science at Florida State University, traces creationism and evolutionism back to a common origin: the crisis of faith during the Enlightenment. Ruse follows the history of this great debate through the Victorian era and up to its recent expressions in the work of evolutionist Richard Dawkins on the one hand and the proponents of "intelligent design" on the other. Harvard student Sally Elliot found it a "bracing, rigorous, and opinionated piece of intellectual history" and "highly recommends" it to News-List readers. ** THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY, by Michael Chabon. Random House, 2000. During World War II, two boys (one a Czech refugee, the other his American cousin) invent a comic strip hero called the Escapist. _The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay_ won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, and rightly so. As freshman Rachel Pollack observes, "the novel is funny, informative, and richly touching. Chabon depicts the characters so colorfully that one feels sad to leave them when the book ends." ** MERE CHRISTIANITY, by C.S. Lewis. Macmillan, 1952. "I read this book last year and really loved it," writes freshman Kim Soo. "Lewis's style is a lot of fun; he gives a lot of concrete examples that make even highly abstract things understandable. Plus, I love the way he reasons things from the ground up. And it's a good introduction to Christianity whether you're looking at it from a non-Christian perspective (to understand what that religion is about) or from a Christian perspective." Two other C. S. Lewis titles also come highly recommended by Kim. _TILL WE HAVE FACES_ (1956) is a reworking of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche and a study of the struggle between sacred and profane love. "But it tells the story from an interesting perspective" (that of Psyche's older, less attractive sister) and "Lewis uses the device of an 'unreliable narrator' to reveal something significant about the way a lot of people think." _ THE GREAT DIVORCE_ (1946) has a title that's a bit misleading, Kim tells us, since it isn't at all about divorce "in the marital sense." Instead, Lewis reflects upon "the separateness of Heaven and Hell (the 'divorce' between them)." Cast as a dream vision, the story is told in the first person, a device that "allows the reader to see Lewis (the giant that he is) as a human with his own shortcomings and dependencies." ** THE GRIZZLY MAZE: TIMOTHY TREADWELL'S FATAL OBSESSION WITH ALASKAN BEARS, by Nick Jans. Dutton, 2005. In October 2003, 46 year-old Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, 32 year-old Amie Huguenard, were killed and eaten by a grizzly in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve. Treadwell, a self-proclaimed bear expert had spent thirteen summers living mostly alone in the Katmai "grizzly maze," filming and interacting with these wild animals. To some, like those who joined his bear appreciation group, "Grizzly People," Treadwell was a pioneer and an environmental hero; to others, including the park rangers who worried about his safety, he was a reckless crackpot. Jans's book presents Treadwell in his complexity but is most interesting, according to the student who recently finished it, for the "questions that are raised -- but not fully answered -- about interspecies contact." Treadwell, by the way, was also the subject of a Werner Herzog documentary, "Grizzly Man," released in 2005. ********************************************************** NEW FILMS IN MORSE MUSIC & MEDIA Recent and classic titles added to our collection ** RAY. Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.B55 R39 2005x Oscar winning performance by Jamie Foxx in the title role. Originally released in 2004. ** ONCE WERE WARRIORS. Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.A835 O53 2005x New Zealand film about the hard lives of a Maori family in a poor suburb in contemporary Auckland. Based on the novel by Alan Duff; released in 1994. ** LAST DAYS. Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.M463 G87 2005x Gus van Sant's film about the final hours in the life of Nirvana front-man, Kurt Cobain. ** KING KONG . Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.M6 K56 2005x The 1933 original--still the best! ** BETTY. Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.S87 B48 2005x A lethal game of cat and mouse, based on the novel by George Simenon; in French, with English subtitle. Originally released in 1992. ** HOTEL RWANDA. Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.A43 H68 2005x The story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel worker who sheltered and save the lives of 1200 people during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Originally released in 2004. ** ISLE OF THE DEAD and BEDLAM. Morse Music & Media DVD PN1995.9.H6 I85 2005x >From the Val Lewton horror classics collection; Boris Karloff has the starring role in both films. Originally released in 1945 and 1946. ********************************************************** LAMONT LIBRARY HOURS DURING INTERSESSION Just in case you'll be in town Tuesday, January 24 8:00am - 4:45pm Wednesday, January 25 - Sunday, January 29 CLOSED Monday, January 30 - Tuesday, January 31 8:00am - 4:45pm Regular hours resume on February 1. The Quad Library closes for Intersession on Tuesday, January 24 at 5 p.m. It reopens at 3 p.m. on February 1. ********************************************************* HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want to pass along to other Lamont News-List readers? All suggestions welcome! Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy at fas.harvard.edu. ********************************************************* You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List. If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list. Directions for unsubscribing are at the bottom of the page. ********************************************************** Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard University

18 years, 3 months

The Lamont News List January 9, 2006

by Susan M Gilroy

The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu January 9, 2006 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Happy New Year! Just a reminder that during Reading Period and exams, Lamont has extended its Friday and Saturday evening closing times from 9:45 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. The Quad Library is also open longer and later. You can find its hours here: http://hcl.harvard.edu/hours/week.cfm ********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: -- Recommend a Good Book to Lamont News-List Readers Send us a suggestion and you'll qualify for a great **prize** -- Power Searching Tip no. 3: How to get from an article citation to full-text in 4 easy steps! -- Citation Format Guides on the Web APA, MLA, Chicago style . . . and more -- Cool Tools on the Lamont Library Shelves LET'S GO 2006 travel guides have arrived! ********************************************************** RECOMMEND A GOOD BOOK TO LAMONT NEWS-LIST READERS Send in your suggestion and you might win a great **prize** We want to know what's on your shelf! Every year at this time, we issue a call to Lamont News-List subscribers for a few good book titles. And every year, we offer you a great incentive for sending in your suggestions. When you respond, we'll automatically enter you in a drawing to win 2 tickets to any **Loew's movie theater** (including the Harvard Square Cinema). We'll also toss in one of our rare (and much coveted) Lamont stainless steel mugs. To qualify for the drawing, here's what you need to do: send us the title of your favorite book, a book you're dying to read, a book you've read recently that made an impression on you, a book that changed your life. Include a few sentences about why you think other Lamont News-List readers might enjoy reading it, too. Books on any subject are welcome! You can even send us more than one title, if you're so inclined! As in past years, we'll compile the list and publish it in our late January issue of the Lamont News-List -- just in time for some Intersession R & R! And if you're one of the two lucky winners we'll be selecting at random, you'll have lots of "bookish" films to choose from. "Pride and Prejudice," "Capote," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "The Chronicles of Narnia," "Brokeback Mountain," and "Harry Potter" are still in wide release. "The DaVinci Code" (with Tom Hanks) and "Fateless" (from the book by Nobel-prize winner Imre Kertesz) are also on the way! Send your reading suggestions to sgilroy(a)fas.harvard.edu as soon as you can . . . but not later than ** Monday, January 16, 2006** at 5 p.m. ********************************************************* POWER SEARCHING TIP no. 3: How to get from an article citation to the full-text in 4 easy steps! Let's say your TF has sent you an email with citations to the three journal articles he thinks you should read before your final next week. Or, let's say you've come across the journal article yourself in the bibliography of a book that's been helpful in your research. What should you do? Step 1: Go to the Harvard Libraries Portal page (http://lib.harvard.edu) Step 2: Click on "CITATION LINKER." You'll find it under the red "E-Resources" menu button at the top of the page (and also among the items listed at the bottom of the home page screen). Step 3: In the screen that next opens, type the JOURNAL NAME in the "title" box. (You can add other information, too, if you wish -- like the volume number and the year -- although "title" should work just fine.) Hit the <Enter> key or click on the "find it @harvard" button. If the journal you're after is one of the 22,000 or so that the libraries make available in full-text, you'll be presented with one or more options for retrieving it. Step 4, in that case, is amazingly easy: just point and click. The great thing about CITATION LINKER is that it works in such a way that at the same time it's searching our e-resources for you, it's also looking in the HOLLIS catalog, just in case there's also -- or only --a hard (print) copy of the journal available. ********************************************************* CITATION FORMAT GUIDES ON THE WEB: MLA, APA, Chicago Style and more! It's that time of year again: Harvard undergraduates in the thick of research projects, style guides flying off the reference shelves. Even students who have mastered the intricacies of parenthetical references or the rules for books without publication dates can feel stumped by the proper formats for journal articles, government documents, or an interview transcript. And then there's that whole other world of online information: that article from LexisNexis that doesn't have page breaks, the report that you've stumbled across on a U.N. website, the email that you really want to quote in your paper. If you can't find your old Expos copy of _Writing With Sources_ or aren't near a Lamont copy of the _Chicago Manual of Style_, perhaps the answer to your question can be found at one of the websites we describe below. ** Research and Documentation Online http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/index.html Produced by Diana Hacker, well-known for her writing handbooks, this nicely organized site is arranged by broad subject: Humanities (which favor MLA), Social Sciences (APA style), History (Chicago style), and Science (CBE style). Each section contains rules, examples, and a sample paper in the featured format. ** ONLINE! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/shrttoc.html This website is hosted by Bedford/St. Martin's Press, a leading publisher of writing manuals and composition textbooks. If you're citing HTML documents straight from the web, this is a good place to go for advice about citing in APA, MLA, CBE, and Chicago styles. It can help you source information from Harvard-owned e-resources, too -- like LexisNexis. ** Citing References in Your Paper http://www.wisc.edu/writetest/Handbook/Documentation.html Produced by the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the site offers examples and illustrations of major citation styles. It also has a thoughtful section on paraphrasing and offers tips on how to do it well. ********************************************************* COOL TOOLS IN LAMONT: LET'S GO 2006 travel guides have arrived on our shelves! If you're planning a great escape from Cambridge during Intersession, we have good news for you: LET'S GO 2006 guides have arrived in Lamont! Written by Harvard students, LET'S GO bills itself as the "bible of the budget traveler," and each guide is packed with information that will help you stretch your dollars further, find hidden deals, and decide what you should splurge on. LET'S GO 2006 guides are kept on Lamont's Reference shelves [REF ROOM G 153 .6]. These can't leave the library, because they're in such high demand, especially in the spring term, when undergraduates begin comping for summer jobs at LET'S GO. However, earlier editions -- from 2004 and 2005 -- can be checked out. You'll find them in the travel collection in our Farnsworth Room on Level 5. The LET'S GO website (http://www.letsgo.com) is also worth a look for additional travel information, airfare specials, travel blogs, photo forums, and the like. And by the way: LET'S GO guides aren't the only travel books you'll find in Lamont. LONELY PLANET and FODOR guides are shelved nearby in the Farnsworth Room. ********************************************************* HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want to pass along to other Lamont News-List reader? All suggestions welcome! Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy(a)fas.harvard.edu. ********************************************************* You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List. If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list. Directions for unsubscribing are at the bottom of the page. Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard University *********************************************************

18 years, 3 months

The Lamont News-List November 22, 2005

by Susan M Gilroy

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* The Lamont News-List lamref(a)fas.harvard.edu November 22, 2005 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Lamont Library Factoid: On a typical day, our Reference Room printers use up to 3.5 reams of paper--or about 1750 single-sided sheets. You've wanted a cost effective solution that's also environmentally sound. It's arrived! Our Reference Room computers now allow duplex printing of PDF files. If you're not sure how to select this option, ask at the Desk and we'll show you what to do! ********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: -- E-Research Cool Tool Academic and scholarly books that you can search--and read--online! -- Lamont Library Hours over the Thanksgiving Break Just in case you'll be around! -- Power Searching Tip no. 2: "Availability" v. "Holdings" screens in the HOLLIS catalog -- A few good books that are new on our shelves Perfect to take with you for a long weekend of reading! ********************************************************* E-RESEARCH COOL TOOL Academic and scholarly books that you can search--and read--online! ebrary http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:ebraryxx Chances are good that if you've found a book in HOLLIS with an "internet link," it's one of the more than 25,000 digitized items that the Harvard Libraries make available to you through a collection called ebrary Academic Complete. Ebrary titles come from some of the most respected publishing houses in the business: MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Knopf, and Kluwer (among others). That means that you can count on getting authoritative content across the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and their subdisciplines. You can count on the currency of that content as well. The majority of books in the ebrary collection have been published within the last 5 years. In ebrary, you're given simple and advanced searching options and, as in HOLLIS, you can search by author, title, publisher, special subject terms, or some combination of these. Keyword searching is an option in ebrary, too. If you've only experienced ebrary through a HOLLIS link, you may not have discovered the features that make it such a good research tool. Once you sign in to the ebrary database and set up your (free) password-protected account, here's just a few of the things that you can do: ** create your own online bookshelf of titles. Store the books you want to return to later in your virtual research space. You can check them out for as long as you like or as long as you need and you'll never accrue fines . . . or get a recall notice! ** bookmark the page or pages in a book that are especially important to your work. ** highlight important passages in the online books you're reading. They'll automatically be saved to your bookshelf for future reference. ** annotate the text you're reading using the "Notes" tab. You can keep track of ideas as they occur to you, and your notes will be saved to your bookshelf for later review. ** copy and paste text from an ebrary item into a Word document you're working with. Ebrary will even generate a bibliographic citation automatically and in a style (like APA or MLA) that you specify. A nice research bonus is the set of "Info Tools" that ebrary puts at your disposal. Highlight a word, right click on your mouse, and a dictionary definition will appear. Ask ebrary to "explain," and a more detailed encyclopedia entry will put a person, place or concept in its larger contexts. Foreign words and expressions can even be translated on the spot. Ebrary doesn't allow you to download entire books, but you can print portions of them out: 10 pages at a time or a total of 40 per session (due to copyright rules). Download the free ebrary reader to your laptop or PC and try your hand at exploring. Or just go browsing: ebrary uses subject terms like those in the HOLLIS catalog to help you find your way! You'll find an ebrary "Quick Guide" at http://tinyurl.com/bukbt ********************************************************* LAMONT LIBRARY HOURS DURING THANKSGIVING BREAK: When we're open, when we're not, and what to know about reserves readings Wednesday, November 23 library closes at 4:45 p.m. Thursday, November 24 CLOSED Friday, November 25 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. Saturday, November 26 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. Sunday, November 27 library opens at noon DID YOU KNOW? Unless it's the only copy or the last copy of an item, you can take reserves readings with you for the holiday weekend. Checkout begins at 2 p.m. on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23. Just be sure to return reserves materials by 9 a.m. on Monday November 28. ********************************************************* POWER SEARCHING TIP: no.2: "Availability" v. "holdings" screens in the HOLLIS catalog "Location, location, location." At an institution that has close to 100 libraries, the physical and intellectual siting of materials listed in HOLLIS (by building and call number) is obviously critical. But we've probably all had the experience of jotting down a call number and heading straight for the stacks, only to find out that the books aren't where they should be or the library doesn't have the journal issue that we need. Taken at face value, location information can indeed be deceiving. That's why the HOLLIS catalog provides you with links to "availability" and "holdings" screens. You'll find them listed after an item's call number, sitting side by side. But which of these links should a puzzled undergraduate follow? Here's our rule of thumb: When you come across a *book* in the HOLLIS catalog, the "availability" screen is always essential. "Availability" tells you about the status of the item: if it's in the building and (presumably) on the shelf, missing from the collection, on reserve, and so forth. You could click on the holdings information, of course, but you wouldn't learn much more than you already know: that a copy of the book is owned ("held") in one or more places in the Yard (or just beyond). When you're after a *journal* or *magazine* (materials that librarians call "periodicals"), the reverse is actually true. Since libraries rarely let patrons check journals out, availability shouldn't be at issue. In theory at least, if the library is open and its materials can't leave the building, you should always be able to get your hands on them there. For periodicals, then, HOLLIS "holdings" screens are key. That's because holdings verify the particulars of the coverage--the extent to which a library's subscription is complete. Let's say you want to look at the very first issues of _Forbes_ magazine, which dates back to 1918. Unless you checked the holdings information, you might not realize that Lamont began getting issues of _Forbes_ much later--our subscription started in 1979, with volume 123. So plunging headlong into our Periodicals collection on Level 2 would waste good research time, and ultimately, land you back at the HOLLIS catalog--or at the Reference Desk. It's not that the availability screen tells you nothing about a periodical. But making sense of the information there often takes more effort and more time. Availability screens list each individual volume on a separate line, and the list often doesn't follow a chronological order. Holdings screens answer your questions at a glance by clearly presenting volume ranges. Holdings screens will tell you other things, too: if issues are missing, for example, or whether portions of the journal are in the Harvard Depository. And by the way: if you've wondered about the strange term "current receipts" that sometimes appears in the holdings information, it's language librarians use to indicate the recent issues of periodicals that have arrived. "Current receipts" information can be an important navigational aid. In Lamont, current issues of magazines and journals are arranged alphabetically on Reference Room shelves; current receipts of many Widener publications, some arranged alphabetically, some by region, and some by call numbers, are displayed on shelves in the first floor Periodicals Reading Room. ********************************************************* A FEW NEW TITLES ON THE LAMONT SHELVES Perfect to take with you for some long-weekend reading! *** CHASING THE DEVIL'S TAIL: A MYSTERY OF STORYVILLE, NEW ORLEANS, by David Fulmer. Harvest, 2001. [NEW BOOK SHELF PS3606.U56 C49 2003] Storyville, 1907: In this raucous red-light district, where two thousand scarlet women ply their trade, where cocaine is sold over the counter and rye whiskey flows freely, there's a killer loose. Someone is murdering prostitutes and marking each killing with a black rose. Fulmer's novel, his first, was a _Booklist_ "Best New Mystery Series" winner and an _L.A. Times_ Book Prize Finalist. *** WORMWOOD FOREST: A NATURAL HISTORY OF CHERNOBYL, by Mary Mycio. Joseph Henry Press, 2005. [NEW BOOK SHELF QH543.5 .M93 2005] Twenty years after the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, intrepid journalist Mary Mycio donned a dosimeter and camouflage protective gear to explore the world's most infamous radioactive wilderness. And she is shocked to discover that the area surrounding Chernobyl has become Europe's largest wildlife sanctuary. Like the forests, fields, and swamps of their unexpectedly inviting habitat, both the people and the animals are all radioactive. Cesium 137 is packed into their muscles and strontium-90 is in their bones. But quite astonishingly, they are thriving. *** The LAVENDER SCARE: THE COLD WAR PERSECUTION OF GAYS AND LESBIANS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, by David K. Johnson. U of Chicago Press, 2004. [NEW BOOK SHELF JK723.H6 J64 2004] The McCarthy era is generally considered the worst period of political repression in recent American history. But while the famous question "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?" resonated in the halls of Congress, security officials were posing another question at least as frequently, if more discreetly: "Information has come to the attention of the Civil Service Commission that you are a homosexual. What comment do you care to make?" David Johnson, a historian, relates the frightening and largely untold story of how, during the Cold War, homosexuals were considered a national security threat. *** WHY DOES LITERATURE MATTER?, by Frank B. Farrell. Cornell U P, 2004. [NEW BOOK SHELF PS221 .F37 2004] Farrell maintains that recent literary theory has badly misread findings in the philosophy of language and the theory of subjectivity. That misreading has tended to endorse ways of understanding literature that make one question its importance overalll. Farrell's book attempts to provide an answer. Among the writers discussed are John Ashbery, Amit Chadhuri, James Merrill, W.G. Sebald, Cormac McCarthy, and Marcel Proust. Philosophers important to his argument include Donald Davidson, Daniel Dennett, Martin Heidegger, and Bernard Williams. The literary theorists addressed are Stephen Greenblatt, Marjorie Perloff, and Paul de Man. *** THE GREAT DECEPTION: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, by Christopher Booker and Richard North. Continuum, 2003. [NEW BOOK SHELF JN15 .B6393 2005x ] This book tells the "inside story" of the most audacious political project of modern times: the plan to unite Europe under a single supranational government. The book shows how Britain's politicians, not least Tony Blair, have consistently been outplayed in a game--the rules of which they never understood. It ends by asking whether, from the euro to enlargement, the "project" has overreached itself, and is a gamble doomed to fail. *** FALLINGWATER RISING: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, E.J. KAUFMANN, AND AMERICA'S MOST EXTRAORDINARY HOUSE, by Franklin Toker. Knopf, 2005. [New Book Shelf NA737.W7 T65 2005x] Wright's Fallingwater house made America fall in love with modernist architecture, according to Franklin Toker. The analysis of Wright's character and creativity, the often lyrical evocations of his buildings, and the insightful overview of the modernist intellectual milieu of the 1930s make the book a wonderful exploration of the psychological and social meaning of architecture. *** THE ELEMENTS OF MURDER: A HISTORY OF POISON, by James Emsley. Oxford, 2005. [New Book Shelf HV6553 .E47 2005x] Emsley combines history, chemistry, and true crime in this compelling account of murderous chemical elements. Mercury, arsenic, antimony, lead, and thallium-- all have caused death, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. Through vividly told stories of innocent blunders, cunning poisoners, and deaths that remain a mystery, he uncovers the dark side of the Periodic Table. *** NEOCONOMY: GEORGE BUSH'S REVOLUTIONARY GAMBLE WITH AMERICA'S FUTURE, by Daniel Altman. Public Affairs, 2004. [New Book Shelf HC106.83 .A45 2004] The neoconomy is a place where taxes have disappeared on everything except your labor. In this compelling book, Daniel Altmann explains how the White House began dismantling the tax system, passing their tax cuts off as a cure for stagnation; how Bush locked the nation on his chosen path, incurring huge risks while casting the nation into debt; and finally, how the whole gamble might play out. _Neoconomy_ was a _Publisher's Weekly_ Best Book of 2004. ********************************************************* HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want to pass along to other Lamont News-List readers? All suggestions welcome! Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy(a)fas.harvard.edu. ********************************************************* You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List. If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list. Directions for unsubscribing are at the bottom of the page. ********************************************************** Copyright 2005 President and Fellows of Harvard University

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