The Lamont News-List February 10. 2006

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… ********************************************************* 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