Sage Journals Online

Our subscription to the Sage journals online, called Sage Premium, has been upgraded to include over 600 journals. The new subscription also includes all new titles launched this year, such as Organizational Psychology Review; Race and Justice; Society and Mental Health; The Neurohospitalist; and Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety. The database is accessible through the library's A-Z database page and many of the subject pages. Check it out at http://online.sagepub.com.online.library.marist.edu/search

New Exhibit in the Lowell Thomas Communication Center

Journey to the Land of Our Past with the Lowell Thomas Travelogues

Journalist, lecturer, author, broadcaster and famous globetrotter,

Lowell Thomas was the foremost raconteur of the twentieth century. His

long and distinguished public career began in the wartime deserts of

the Middle East and was completed here in Dutchess County. His 1919

travelogue, "With Allenby in Palestine, and Lawrence in Arabia" was

the most popular of its kind, became the lens through which the West

perceived the First World War in the Middle East, and popularized T.E.

Lawrence who became famous worldwide as "the Uncrowned King of

Arabia." The exhibit attempts to recreate the experience of Lowell

Thomas's famous travelogues as well as provide a historical survey of

the related events from 1917 to 1919. Displayed are major aspects of

the presentation, relevant documents and advertising, and biographical

sketches of major figures. Visitors learn how Thomas presented the

wartime Middle East in two parts, the land of our constructed past and

the land of the Other - the land of the Bible and that of The Arabian

Nights.

The Lowell Thomas Papers were donated to Marist College by the Thomas

family in 2006. The processing and preservation of the collection was

completed in October of 2009 with the help of a grant from the

National Archives and Record Administration's Historical Publications

and Records Commission (NHPRC). The Lowell Thomas Papers are

housed at the Marist College Archives & Special Collections,

located on the first floor of the James A. Cannavino Library.

Many of the collections images and objects have been digitized through the support of

an additional grant from the NHPRC and are available on-line at

http://library.marist.edu/archives/search/.

The exhibit will be up for the 2011 - 2012 academic year.

Environmental History Collections

The Archives and Special Collections is becoming well known for its rich environmental history collections, which include thousands of books, documents, photographs, audio, and video materials documenting the Scenic Hudson Decision.

The Scenic Hudson Decision was a 17-year (1963-1981) legal dispute which defeated Consolidated Edison's plan to embed the world's largest pumped storage hydroelectric plant into the face of Storm King Mountain, near Cornwall, New York. The lengthy and controversial case had an immense impact on environmental and legal issues affecting the Hudson River Valley as well as the nation. The landmark case set important precedents in environmental law including: the right of citizens to participate in environmental disputes, the emergence of environmental law as a legal specialty, ideas Congress incorporated in the country's first National Environment Policy Act (NEPA), federal and state regulation of the environment, and it is credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Now approximately 1,000 books can be found on the Library catalog and all 17 of our archival collections documenting Scenic Hudson Decision have finding aids available on-line.

The environmental collections' newest addition is the recently published book,  Environmental History of the Hudson River: Human Uses that Changed the Ecology, Ecology that Changed Human Uses (SUNY Press, 2011), which includes Executive Vice President Geoffrey Brackett’s chapter  “Thy Fate and Mine Are Not Repose”: The Hudson and Its Influence. 

  

Lowell Thomas Digitization Project

The Archives and Special Collections is currently in the middle of a mass digitization project, which is being funded by the National Archives. The goal of the project is to make all of the approximately 36,000 images in the Lowell Thomas Papers available on the Internet. Several thousand images are currently available via the finding aid for the collection and on IBM’s Content Manager database.

You can search Lowell Thomas’s WWI era glass plate negatives by going to the following URL: http://library.marist.edu/archives/search/ or by browsing the following subject areas:

• Arabia
• Palestine
• Egypt
• Personal
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Malaya
• Burma
• India
• Airplanes
• American Expeditionary Forces
• England
• Greece
• Italy
• Malta
• Mediterranean Sea
• Military
• Miscellaneous
• First World Flight
• Oversize

Additional updates will be sent out as this project progresses.

Library Quiet Space

Quiet Study in Kirk Reading Room

The Library has experienced a significant increase in use early in the new academic year. This is at least partly attributable to a crowded campus and students seeking a conducive, that is to say, quiet place to work.

Accordingly we have designated the Kirk Reading Room (North end of the 1st floor) as a full-time Quiet Room.  Here researchers can place a thick set of double doors between themselves and the inevitable traffic noise and conversation of the wider public spaces.

The library will monitor use and solicit comment during the year.  Please pass along your own or your students' thoughts/comments using the link below, or contact Associate Director Mark Colvson (x2193).

Reese Family Papers

The Archives and Special Collections recently received an extraordinary collection from former Trustee Alex Reese and his siblings Frances Reese Olivieri, John R. Reese, and George Reese.

The Reese Family Papers document the professional and personal lives of several of the ancestors of Frances Gallatin Stevens Reese and her husband, Willis Livingston Mesier Reese. The papers contain indentures, personal, political, and business correspondence, military documents, manuscripts of prose and poetry, scrapbooks, bills of lading, invoices, promissory notes, canceled checks, financial ledgers, diaries, passports, newspaper clippings and photographs.

Highlights from the collection include the papers of Ebenezer Stevens (1751-1823), who was a Major General in the American Continental Army and corresponded with Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, and James Madison. The papers of Robert Shaw Oliver tell his story while he served in the Civil War, rising to the rank of General after the conflict. He was named Assistant Secretary of War in 1903 under Theodore Roosevelt and served into the administration of William Howard Taft. Researchers will also find the personal papers of Frances (Franny) Reese (1917-2003) who was a leading environmentalist and founding member of Scenic Hudson. Her efforts helped launch the modern environmental movement during the lengthy and controversial law case known as the Scenic Hudson Decision.

The Reese Family Papers are already available for use by researchers. The finding aid for the collection can be found at the following URL: http://library.marist.edu/archives/reesePapers/reesePapers.xml. These papers are a treasure trove of information for articles, term papers, or capping papers. Don't let the opportunity to be the first to publish using the Reese Family Papers get away!

Mark Colvson: New Associate Library Director

Mark Colvson

Mark Colvson has joined the Marist College staff as the Associate Director of the Library.  He holds a B.A. in Psychology from Haverford College and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Drexel University.  Mark has over twenty years experience in academic librarianship, having worked previously in libraries at the University of Pennsylvania, Binghamton University, Bryn Mawr College, and most recently, the United States Military Academy.  During his tenure at Bryn Mawr, he led the Public Services staff for the main library as well as the Desktop Support staff for Information Services.  Most recently, at West Point, Mark led the Systems Division.

Mark’s library interests include student-centered learning as it affects the delivery of library instruction, the use of social media in delivering library services, and the impact of electronic media on the academic conversation.  His other interests include amateur theatrics, vocal music performance, and the fanatical support of his hometown ball club, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ask-A-Librarian has a new easy-to-remember email address:

Ask-A-Librarian@marist.edu.

 Ask-A-Librarian is the question-and-answer email service of the Cannavino Library.  Ask any library-related question and a librarian will respond to you within a few hours.

We changed the email address for Ask-A-Librarian to make it easier to remember.  In Lotus Notes type the word “ask” into the Marist Address Book Directory, and the address will pre-populate. With other email systems simply address your email to Ask-A-Librarian@marist.edu.   

         

You can continue to use the form on the website to ask your question.  A link to the form is also available in many of our databases.  The form will open in a new tab or window allowing you to look at the database screen as you enter in your question. 

                

Many students use the Ask-A-Librarian service.  We saw a significant increase in the use of the service over the past year.  Please let your students know about Ask-A-Librarian.

Online Instructional Videos

Over the past year we have developed a number of short instructional videos illustrating library concepts and skills.  Because of the many questions at the Reference Desk about the nature of scholarly articles and how to find them we put together a series of three video tutorials, addressing different aspects of the issue.  The tutorials are:

(1)   What is a Scholarly Journal?   (2:45 minutes)
(2)   Finding Scholarly Journal Articles in Databases.  (2 minutes)
(3)   Is this a Scholarly Journal ?  (2 minutes)

These videos are available in the iLearn Library Site, “Resources”  module, folder “Basic Library Skills”, sub-folder “Scholarly Journals”.  From the Library Site, individual videos can be copied easily into courses.

Two videos address beginning Library skills.  They are:

(1)  Library Catalog Basic Tutorial (5 minutes)
(2)  Fox Hunt: A Brief Overview (3 ½ minutes)

These videos are available in the iLearn Library Site, “Resources”  module, folder “Basic Library Skills".  Individual videos can be copied easily into courses.

The same videos are available from the Cannavino Library YouTube Channel,  (http://www.youtube.com/user/CannavinoLibrary.)   A playlist with the three Scholarly Journal videos is available at the site. (http://www.youtube.com/user/CannavinoLibrary#g/c/0DE53FAA8EDA5F72) .

We welcome suggestions and requests for new videos addressing library topics or databases.

iLearn Library Site

The iLearn Library Site is an open joinable site created to support faculty integrating Library resources into their iLearn courses.  At present we have videos aimed at communicating basic library concepts and skills to students and “how-to” documents written to support the creation of stable URLs to library resources in iLearn.  The documents and videos are stored in the “Resources” module.

In a brief downloadable document, we provide instructions, with screen shots, for joining the iLearn Library Site, http://library.marist.edu/tut/ilearn_support/joinlibsite.pdf

          If you have any questions or need assistance using Library resources in iLearn, please contact Kathryn Silberger.  Her telephone number is 845-575-3419, and her email address is Kathryn.silberger@marist.edu.