It's That Time of the Semester Again!

Time to start your research, that is.

With the end of the semester quickly approaching, it is time to start finding research materials for papers, projects and other assignments. Hopefully you've had at least one orientation session at the NCC Libraries, where you learned how to find books and search the periodical databases.

If you haven't visited the Library or need a refresher on how to do research, you're in luck! The NCC Librarians have been hard at work creating Research Guides, customized Web sites designed to help your research anxiety disappear.

What kind of information can you find on a Research Guide? Here are some examples:

• Suggested keywords for specific topics


• Ideas to help narrow your topic


• Information on searching for books, including lists of relevant titles


• Recommendations on the best databases to use for specific subjects


• Links to reliable Web sites


• Advice on creating citations


• Videos that demonstrate how to perform database searches

... and much more!

To take advantage of this collected wisdom, all you need to do is visit our Research Guides home page, and choose a course or topic for which you need information. Courses covered by our Research Guides include:

• English I
• English II (Literature Criticism)
• Speech Communication
• Dental Hygiene
• Political Science
• Medical Terminology
• Sociology
• Marketing
• Stay tuned, there are more Research Guides being added all the time!
  

Once you've located the appropriate Research Guide, you can navigate around the site by clicking on various tabs. All of the Research Guides include instructions for contacting an NCC Librarian, so don't hesitate to call or e-mail if you need assistance!

Best of luck with your end-of-semester research. We look forward to seeing you in the Library!

Group Project? Reserve a Study Room!

The Mack Library (main campus) has four study rooms available for students who wish to work together on group projects. We encourage you to take advantage of these quiet locations if your discussion with fellow students will disturb others in the Library. The study rooms are located in the Periodicals Tower and Media Tower.

To reserve a study room for your group, stop by the Reference Desk and speak to a Librarian. You may also contact us by calling 610-861-5359, or by sending an e-mail to the "Ask the Librarian" mailbox. Reservations are limited to two hours on any given day, and to two appointments per week.

Please note that sign-up sheets are no longer being used for study room reservations. Only reservations made through the Reference Desk will be accepted. If you have any questions, please feel free to speak to a Librarian.

This Day In History: Basketball Cracks Up!

The start of the basketball season is upon us, so here is a little piece of trivia for you: the first shattered backboard occurred way back on November 5, 1946! The excitement didn't happen during a game -- the improperly installed wooden backboard was broken while Chuck Connors of the Boston Celtics was warming up. (Even more trivia: Connors later became an actor and starred in the television series The Rifleman.)

To celebrate basketball season, check out some of these NCC Library titles:

Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years In My Life as a Basketball Vagabond
by Paul Shirley
GV 884 .S45 A3 2007 Stacks

On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
GV 884 .A24 A32 2007 Stacks

The Physics of Basketball
by John Joseph Fontanella
QC 26 .F66 2006 Stacks

Miracle on 49th Street
by Mike Lupica
PZ 7 .L9791 MIR 2006 Children's Literature (Young Adult section)

Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four
by John Feinstein
GV 885.49 .N37 F45 2006 Stacks

Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball
by Pamela Grundy
GV 886 .G78 2005 Stacks

Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era
by Gary M. Pomerantz
GV 885.7 .P66 2005 Stacks

Spinning the Globe: The Rise, Fall, and Return to Greatness of the Harlem Globetrotters
by Ben Green
GV 885.52 .N38 G73 2005 Stacks

Information courtesy of:
"Basketball." Online Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. Oct. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/art-110152>.

Chase's Calendar of Events 2009. New York: McGraw Hill. 2009. Print.

November Is Family Literacy Month

Yesterday (November 1) was Family Literacy Day, which launches the month-long celebration of Family Literacy Month during November. Literacy is the ability to read and write. Unfortunately, many Americans are illiterate -- unable to read, or with reading skills at a low level. Take a moment this month to appreciate literacy with your family, by reading a book together, looking over the daily newspaper or making up your own stories. For more information on literacy, borrow some of these books from the NCC Libraries:

Literacy for Young Children: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators
by Priscilla L. Griffith
LB 1140.5 .L3 L58 2008 Stacks, Main and Monroe

Partners in Literacy: Schools and Libraries Building Communities Through Technology
by Sondra Cuban
LB 1028.3 .C813 2007 Stacks

Literacy Development of Students in Urban Schools: Research and Policy
by James Flood
LC 151 .L4821 2005 Stacks

What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy

by James Paul Gee
GV 1469.3 .G44 2004 Stacks

How to Get Your Child to Love Reading

by Esme Raji Codell

Z 1037 .A1 C58 2003 Stacks

The Young Child's Memory for Words: Developing First and Second Language and Literacy

by Daniel R. Meier
P 118.7 .M45 2004 Stacks

Image credit:

Johnson, J. Seward. "No Mommy, That One!" Photograph of bronze sculpture. Smithsonian Institution Research Information System, Art Inventories Catalog. 28 Oct. 2009. http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/.

Hallowe'en Horrors!

This Hallowe'en, why not make an expedition to some of the more spectral corners of the NCC Library? In these foreboding tomes and monstrous movies, you'll encounter malevolent god-monsters, pagan rituals, cursed masks, haunted Appalachia, forbidden horror comics, a corpse bride and much more!


Lovecraft: Stories
by H.P. Lovecraft
PS 3523 .O833 A6 2005 Stacks






Horror Films of the 1970s
by John Muir
PN 1995.9 .H6 M85 2002 Stacks





The Voice on the Mountain
by Manly Wade Wellman
PS 3545 .E52858 V6 1984 Stacks





Onibaba [DVD]
PN 1997 .O482 2004 Media Tower






The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
by David Hadju
PN 6725 .H33 2008 Stacks





The Corpse Bride [DVD]
PN 1997.2 .C67 C67 2005 Media Tower







Harvest Home
by Thomas Tryon
PS 3570 .R9 H3 Stacks






Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror [DVD]
PR 6037 .T617 N67 2007 Media Tower







Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
PZ 7 .G1273 CO 2002 Children's Literature (Juvenile)




Also check out these tricks and treats, if you dare!

Classics of the Horror Film
by William K. Everson
PN 1995.9 .H6 E9 Stacks

The Church of Dead Girls
by Stephen Dobyns
PS 3554 .O2 C48 1997 Stacks

Candles Burning
by Tabitha King and Michael McDowell
PS 3561 .I4835 C27 2006 Stacks

Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque
by Joyce Carol Oates
PS 3565 .A8 H38 1995 Stacks

The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
PS 3519 .A392 H3 1987 Stacks

Freaks [DVD]
PN 1997 .F743 2004 Media Tower

Frankenstein: Legacy Collection [DVD]
PR 5397 .F716 2004 Monroe Campus Library

Dracula: Legacy Collection [DVD]
PR 6037 .T617 D72 2004 Monroe Campus Library

The Frankenstein and Dracula Legacy sets above each contain five feature films from the iconic Universal Studios series, along with commentaries, documentaries and trailers. Perfect for your Hallowe'en film festival!

This Day In History: The Internet Is Born!

Where would we be without the Internet? You probably wouldn't talk to friends as often. You couldn't get instant news or weather updates, or watch hilarious video clips on YouTube. You'd have to find a newspaper or use the phone to find a movie show time, and there would be no online shopping. You would have a more difficult time conducting research. Worst of all, you wouldn't even be able to read SpartaBlog! ;)

Computers have come a long way since the early days of the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), developed during World War II (see photo). So if you enjoy using the Internet, join the NCC Libraries in celebrating the 1969 creation of the World Wide Web! Yes, you read that correctly: the Internet started over three decades ago. Begun as ARPAnet, this system was established by the U.S. Defense Department so scientists and other professionals could communicate with each other. This World Wide Web is completely different from the Internet we know today.

Tim Berners-Lee is usually credited as the creator of the modern Internet. He first brought HTTP, HTML and the earliest Web browser to the public's attention in the early 1990s. Slowly, Web pages started popping up, talking over a distance was easier, and more people began contributing to the Web.

It's hard to imagine a world without the Internet. Many NCC students have grown up with the Internet from a young age, and can't remember a time when it didn't exist. It greatly helps students in school, people in the workforce, and librarians who can quickly answer a student's question! Take a moment today to celebrate the creation of the Internet.

If you'd like more information about the Internet and World Wide Web, check out these Library resources:

Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource
by Michael Miller
E-BOOK (Online)

Electronic America
by Laurie DiMauro
T 58.5 .E4 2009 Stacks, Main and Monroe

Privacy and the Internet: Your Expectations and Rights Under the Law
by Margaret C. Jasper
KF 1263 .C65 J37 2009 New Books section

Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America
by Julia Angwin
HD 9696.8 .U64 M973 2009 Stacks

Designing Web Navigation
by James Kalbach
TK 5105.88 .K34 2007 Stacks

Online Matchmaking
by Monica T. Whitty
HQ 801.82 .O55 2007 Stacks

Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge: A View From Europe
by Jean N. Jeanneney
ZA 4234 .G64 J4313 2007 Stacks, Main and Monroe

The Internet Revolution
by Kevin Hillstrom
TK 5105.875 .I57 H54 2005 Stacks

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
by John Battelle
HD 9696.8 .U64 G663 2005 Stacks, Main and Monroe

The Technology Revolution: The Not-for-Dummies Guide to the Impact, Perils, and Promise of the Internet
by J.R. Okin
ZA 4201 .O44 2005 Stacks

The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia
by Hilary W. Poole
TK 5105.875 .I57 I5372 2005 Reference (3 volumes)

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
by Louis Rosenfeld
TK 5105.88 .R67 2002 Stacks, Main and Monroe

Information courtesy of:
Festa, Paul. "Newsmaker: Turning on the World Wide Web." CNet News. 10 December 2001. Web. 9 October 2008. http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082-276771.html

"History of the World Wide Web." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 9 October 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web

This Day In History: Pablo Picasso

Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth, in 1881, of famous artist Pablo Picasso. To the left, you'll see his painting, "The Three Musicians."

This Spanish painter and sculptor is best known for creating the artistic movement Cubism, which "...emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro, and refuting time-honoured theories that art should imitate nature." That should impress your art history professor! (Just remember to cite this information if you use it!)

For a complete list of Picasso's works, visit his page on ArtHistoryGuide.com. For more information on Picasso's life and the Cubist style, check out these Library resources:

Picasso: Architecture and Vertigo
by Christopher Green
N 6853 .P5 G74 2005 Stacks

The Cubist Painters
by Guillaume Apollinaire
ND 196 .C8 A6613 2004 Stacks

Cubism and Its Histories
by David Cottington
N 6848.5 .C82 C67 2004 Stacks

Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue
by Pablo Picasso
ND 553 .P5 A4 2002 Stacks

Pablo Picasso [DVD]
produced by Kultur International Films
ND 553 .P5 P232 2002 Media Tower

Picasso
by Timothy Hilton
ND 553 .P5 H54 1985 Stacks

Picasso, Line Drawings and Prints: 44 Works
by Pablo Picasso
NC 248 .P5 A4 1981 Stacks

The Complete Paintings of Picasso: His Blue and Rose Periods
by Pablo Picasso
ND 553 .P5 L34513 Stacks

A Life of Picasso
by John Richardson
N 6853 .P5 R56 Stacks (3 volumes)

Information courtesy of:
"Cubism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Web. 7 Oct. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9028108>.

"Picasso, Pablo." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Web. 7 Oct. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9108524>.

Image courtesy of:
"Picasso, Pablo." Wikipedia. 2009. Web. 7 Oct. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

This Day In History: iPod Unveiled

It is difficult to walk through the Library without noticing students listening to their iPods and MP3 players. (Remember to keep the volume on your music turned low, so you don't disturb others!) These little listening devices seem to be everywhere, but they were just introduced on this day in 2001, when the iPod player was officially launched by Apple Corporation.






You may remember the Walkman (portable cassette tape player) or the Discman (portable compact disc player), but the iPod was an entirely new way to store music. It saves songs as computer files, thus cutting out the need to carry around tons of cassettes or CDs. The player itself is tiny, so it is easy to bring along to school, the beach, on an airplane or anywhere!

The iPod not only influenced the computer industry, but also the engineering and music industries. Check out some of these Library resources to learn more about the iPod and how it has changed society so far.


iPod: The Missing Manual
by J.D. Biersdorfer
E-BOOK (Online)

The iPod Book: Doing Cool Stuff With the iPod and the iTunes Store
by Scott Kelby
E-BOOK (Online)

Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
by Steve Knopper
ML 3790 .K57 2009 New Books

Sound Moves: iPod Culture and Urban Experience
by Michael Bull
ML 3916 .B85 2007 Stacks

Playback: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money
by Mark Coleman
ML 3790 .C65 2003 Stacks

For more information, be sure to explore our databases, where there are numerous articles on the state of the music industry. Opposing Viewpoints contains argumentative essays. ProQuest and EBSCOhost provide access to thousands of articles from magazines and journals, all discussing various aspects of iPod technology and the music industry.

Images courtesy of:
"Audiocassette tape." Online photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 5 Oct. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/art-128718>

"Compact disc player." Online photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 5 Oct. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/art-110234>.

"iPod." Online photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica. Web. 5 Oct. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/art-84965>

Get Help With New MLA Style @ Your Library!

Did you know that the MLA style of citation has been significantly revised? The new 7th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, published earlier this year, changes many of the rules for writing citations, such as:

• the URLs for Web sites no longer need to be included in a citation, unless your professor requires it;


• the format of each information source must be identified, even if the item is in print;


• titles of books, journals, magazines, Web sites and other sources should now be italicized instead of underlined.

To be sure you are using the latest citation rules, stop by either of the NCC Libraries and take a look at the new MLA Handbook. There are copies at both main and Monroe campuses. Our reference librarians have also prepared a student handout explaining the basics of MLA style, which includes examples of citations taken from our own online databases. You can pick up a copy at the Reference Desk or click here for the PDF version.

If you need help with MLA style (or have any other questions about writing), contact a tutor at the Learning Center. They have locations at both campuses, and their services are absolutely free!

Teen Read Week

Join the NCC Libraries in celebrating Teen Read Week, an annual event sponsored by the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) division of the American Library Association. This year, Teen Read Week happens October 18-24.

Every year, YALSA chooses a theme for Teen Read Week and encourages young adults (those between the ages of 13 and 19) to read for fun! This year's theme is "Read Beyond Reality," which may be interpreted in a number of different ways. Read up on subjects like:

• Science fiction
• Fantasy
• Fairy tales, tall tales and myths
• Science
• Space exploration
• Robotics
• Artificial intelligence
• Video games and virtual reality.

Find reading lists with suggested titles for each of these topics (including graphic novels, audiobooks and related movies) at the YALSA wiki. For lists of teens' "Top Ten" favorite books, visit YALSA's Web site. (Can you guess which series has been voted the most popular since 2007? Hint: vampires won out over wizards!) Once you've chosen a topic, stop by the NCC Libraries -- don't forget to browse the Young Adult section -- and pick up a fun book today!

Logo courtesy of:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2009/publicity.cfm