New Resource: Credo Reference

Wish you had a reference library at your fingertips?  Now you do!  Credo Reference is the newest addition to the library’s group of electronic resources.  With Credo Reference you can look up census data, read about tandoori cooking in the International Dictionary of Food and Cooking, watch an animation of a black hole, or listen to what a glockenspiel sounds like.

You can also do traditional things you can do with dictionaries and encyclopedias like look up terms or concepts you do not understand or events that are unfamiliar to you.  Credo Reference is a great starting point for research when you need to become familiar with a topic or look for topic ideas.

Why Tornado Touchstone?

A touchstone according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary can be one of three things:

• a stone related to flint that was used to test the purity of gold
• a test or criterion that is used to determine quality or genuineness
• a fundamental or quintessential part or feature

Touchstones are measures of quality. We thought it was an appropriate name since our goal is to provide you with the highest quality services and resources.

The motto, “Lux lucet in tenebris” is found on the medallion over the library entrance. It is a Latin phrase which means “light shining in darkness and comes from John’s gospel, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5).

We often joke about the library being a dangerous place because there are “ideas in there. ” As an institution that believes that all Truth is God’s truth, we know that ideas are not scary and indeed should be explored and discovered to their fullest extent. We hope that the King Library will be such a place where you can explore ideas.

Julie Roberson

Director of Library Services

Silver Sparkling Freshmen

The library staff hosted First Year Experience classes for an orientation to the library on September 4th and 6th. Students were first treated to a story told by Instructional Services Librarian, Jenny Horton. Jenny shared the story, The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. The Rainbow Fish is a story about a fish who has beautiful sparkling scales, but no friends because he won’t share his scales with the other fish. When asked why she chose The Rainbow Fish, Jenny said,

“I wanted to tell The Rainbow Fish because to me it represents the potential we have to give others (students, faculty, staff and community) a piece of ourselves. The sparkling silver scales in the story represent service and unselfishness. So, if we want to benefit in this community of scholarship, we have to be willing to give away “our most prized possessions” of time, knowledge and resources.”

Each student was presented with a sequin to represent the “silver, sparkling scales” that they would learn about the library.

Students were then divided into two groups. One group had a physical tour of the library and the other group received a virtual tour of the library’s website. The orientation concluded with a group assignment that asked students to complete such task as “use the Oxford English Dictionary to find the origin and meaning of the word koolookumba.”

Over 150 number of students participated in the orientation. We hope that all the freshmen feel more at home in the library now.

Julie Roberson

Director of Library Services

11 +1 Ways to Make This Your Best Semester Yet

This is a blog I discovered over the summer. It has great tips and advice for how to organize your life and be more productive.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/advice-for-students-11-ways-to-make-this-your-best-semester-yet.html

The title of this recent post is 11 Ways to Make This Your Best Semester Yet. Unfortunately, the author left out a very important way to help make this your best semester yet:

Visit the library

Ok, ok, I hear you. You’re thinking of course, you would say that. You’re a librarian. You love the library.

You’re right. I do. I love the library, but more importantly, I love seeing our students and faculty and staff in the library.

Here’s some things that you might want to do in the library to make it your best semester yet:

1. Ask a question at the reference desk. Librarians love to help people, so don’t hesitate to let us know how we can help you!

2. Sit in one of the green chairs and read something for fun. Browse the new book shelf or find a classic work of fiction. Look at our magazine collection. Read something from a journal you wouldn’t normally look at.

3. Get familiar with the library’s website. There’s lots of good info there that can save you time and effort when you need to do research.

4. Suggest a new book or video. We’d love to hear ideas from you about resources you need for a class.

Julie Roberson

8/31/07

P.S.  Thanks to  Dustin Wax, the author of the article linked above for pointing out his other post on 10 Steps to Better Research.  Make that 12 things you can do to make this semester better.

New Survey On U.S. Reading Habits

A new survey reveals that 1 in 4 adults say they read no books at all last year. So where do you fall? How many books did you read last year?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/21/reading.ap/index.html

Julie Roberson

Director of Library Services

Name the Library Blog

We need your help to come up with a snappy name for the E.W. King Library blog.

Here’s the scoop:  Submit a name and tagline by September 7th to library@king.edu.  Include your name and contact information.  If we choose your entry, you will win a $20 Java J’s gift card.

Julie Roberson

Director of Library Services

Goodbye Summer; Hello Fall

In his devotional during faculty workshop, Dr. Dale Brown compared the beginning of school to the days before Christmas. You’ve been busy making all the right preparations for the season. The tree is decorated. Presents are wrapped. Stockings have been hung. You want to open that present under the tree, but as soon as you do, you know that the magic of Christmas will be over and life will be back to its normal routine.

People always ask me what we do in the summer in the library when no students are around? I grin and say, “Oh, there’s plenty to do.” This summer has been no different. Some of the preparations we’ve made this summer include:

• Hiring a new librarian: Jenny Horton is the new Instructional Services Librarian. She is coordinating library instruction and references services for the library. Her office is on the second floor of the library.
• Buying new equipment: The library now has two digital cameras and two digital video cameras for faculty, staff and students to check out.
• Beginning new services: If you use MSN, Yahoo! or AOL to instant message, add ewkinglibrary to your friend or buddy list to ask a question. If we’re not available via chat, send us an email at library@king.edu or call us (423-652-4716) or be really wild and crazy and see us in person.
• Adding new resources: Check out Credo Reference for an online reference library and Education Full-text for access to education periodicals.

I echo Dr. Brown’s feelings about opening the present before Christmas. I’m sad to say goodbye to summer, but glad to see students back on campus. I always wish for a restful, yet productive summer. Very rarely do those desires come true; however, this summer has been truly restorative. I hope the same has been true for you as well.

Julie Roberson, Director of Library Services