Last Week for Trivia Contest!

This is the last week for our trivia contest.  Make sure to finish up your answer keys and submit them to us by the end of next week!

Winter Read-In Tomorrow

Do you like to share what you read?  Each semester the library hosts a small gathering of students, staff, or faculty at the Holy Grounds Coffee Shop to discuss what we like to read.  We call them "read-ins" and we share poems, essays, paragraphs from favorite stories, etc.  Basically, if you enjoy it, come share it with us.

This month's theme is winter.  Do you embrace winter?  Do you love running around in the snow?  Or are you yearning for spring and summer?  Either way, bring a text that shows how much you love or loathe winter.  You could bring a poem about how beautiful spring is, or perhaps a character's recollection of the beauty of a snowfall.  It's your choice.

Come on over tomorrow, January 27th, at 11:30 and share your text.  Grab a coffee while you're at it.  We'll be there until 1:00.  Also, it's a Humanities Passport event, so you can get extra credit.

Need More News?

There are more sources for news now than ever before in human history. We receive information from radio, television, newspapers, and the web, just to name a few. How do you organize all of that stuff? Do you feel overwhelmed?

Use our database Access World News to follow news without feeling overwhelmed. It's free for you to use and allows you access to over 2,000 newspapers worldwide. What else makes it special?

*Full-text for almost all the articles
*Ability to create a personal account to save articles for later
*Interactive world map to choose the location of your news
*Access to archives of newspapers
*Easy ability to limit your search to a particular date, newspaper, or location

So if you've been looking for a new perspective or you just want to start reading the news again, start with Access World News. It's easy to use and can be quite fun once you get the hang of it.

Plus, where else can you find articles for that paper you're writing on the volatility of gas prices? We've got them from the United States, England, India, Japan, and many more places around the globe.

Week 3 Trivia

The new trivia questions are up! Find the link on the right side of this page. Remember to download an answer sheet and fill in your answers. Turn that in to us at the library after the last week of questions.

MLK Display

Come over to the library and check out our book display on Martin Luther King, Jr. Taylor Branch's Pillar of Fire is an especially good book.

How Will You Remember Inauguration Day 2009?

President Barack Obama was sworn-in today as the 44th President of the United States of America. The Library of Congress permitted President Obama to be sworn in on the same bible President Lincoln used. After taking the oath, the President delivered his inaugural address and promising a new era of change for our country. The President declared that government can only do so much and that we, as citizens, must be responsible and help others.

On this historic day, where were you when the President was sworn-in? Did you watch it on campus? What will you remember most about today? Will you answer the President's call to service? We would like to hear from you on this important occasion. Feel free to leave us a comment below.

Also, for more information about the inauguration and the history of the inauguration, scroll down the page and see our post on that topic.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King worked tirelessly throughout his life seeking social justice for African-Americans and the impoverished in the United States.

Dr. King did much of his early work in the American South, but moved on into Northern states and the nation's capital to preach his message. His "I Have a Dream" speech is one of the most famous speeches of the past 50 years and is often quoted by freedom fighters and civil disobedience groups today.

Sadly, Dr. King's life came to a shocking end in Memphis, TN when he was assassinated. However, his work continues to this day, all over the globe. If you want to learn more about his work and how you can be a part of it, visit the King Center's website.

If you wish to learn more about the man and his life's work, visit the Grand View Library. We have a number of books on the life of Dr. King, including At Canaan's Edge and God and human dignity : the personalism, theology, and ethics of Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is also an excellent newspaper archive in which you can relive Dr. King's life, day by day.

Finally, if you're interested in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, check out some of the resources available at the website of the Library of Congress.

Week 2: Trivia!

The next three questions in our trivia contest are up!  Click on the link at the right to download the next three questions.

Inauguration Day 2009

It's been four years and another inauguration is just around the corner.  One week from today President-Elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office at noon, making him the 44th president of the United States of America.  Huge crowds of people are expected in Washington, D.C. and people from all over the world will tune in to see the new president.

But why January 20th?  And what else is going to happen that day?  It's time to answer a few questions with some excellent websites.

Inauguration Day is an American tradition dating back to George Washington's inauguration on April 30th, 1789.  It was then that President Washington added the words "so help me god" to the end of his oath, and kissed the Bible afterwards.

President Lincoln's 2nd inaugural (pictured here) gave the country one of the finest speeches and a time to heal after the Civil War.

The 20th amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1933, stipulated that the President would take office on January 20th.  Before that, almost all inaugurations took place on March 4th.  Imagine all that time between the election and the inauguration! 

If you want to read more about the inauguration, check out the Library of Congress' special digital collection.  It's filled with documents from Washington to Bush.

If you want to learn more about the schedule of events for inauguration day or more about the new first family, check out the government's USA.gov site.  They have a one-stop-shop for everything you need to know, from all the musical acts, to when the speeches will be given.

We'll have more posts in the future on current events and library resources and/or websites that feature those topics.

Trivia Contest

Would you like to take part in our University Trivia Contest?  The grand prize is a $50 gift card to the GVU bookstore.  If you're interested, here's what you need to do:

1. Keep reading the blog.  Each week until February 6th we will post three new questions in a document linked over on the right-hand side of the page (Trivia Questions: Week 1).

2. Download the questions and an answer sheet by clicking on the links.

3. Answer the questions each week.  When all the questions have been answered, turn in your answer sheet to our director via email, campus mail, or in person.

Remember, the questions will only be up for one week at a time, so you won't be able to see Week 1's questions once Week 2 begins.  

Good luck!  Email us if you have questions.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Grand View Library's blog!  Before you continue reading, make sure you bookmark our site or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Why do we have a blog for our library? There are a multitude of reasons, but the most important one of all is to communicate with you, our users. We want you to know what we are working on, what we offer, and how you can use our resources for all of your needs. We also started our blog as a means to get feedback from you. We have comments on the bottom of every post, so when you have something to say about a topic, leave a note or start a discussion.

We will update our blog frequently, so make sure to visit us often. What kinds of things can you expect to see? Here's a list of just a few future post topics:

*Ask the Director Q & A
*What books are you reading?
*New books in the library
*How-to guides for our resources
*New websites to assist you with research or work
*Events & displays in the library
*Book recommendations
*Lists of materials we have related to current events

Plus, we'll take your suggestions for future post topics. 

Check back with us soon. Remember, bookmark us or subscribe to our RSS feed.

New Databases!

Happy New Year.  It's 2009 and the Grand View Library has some exciting news to share.

We have three new databases to offer you!

These databases will give you access to more journals and more full-text so you can complete whatever project, assignment, or paper you are working on.  Here's what we have:

CINAHL Full-Text gives you the same friendly interface you are used to seeing, but now with more journals, more articles, and more full-text.  There are over 600 journals in this database with full-text going back to 1981 for some of them.

PsycARTICLES provides you with access to over 137,000 articles from 66 journals, most of which are published by the American Psychological Association.

SocINDEX features over 700 journals going back as far as 1908.  Plus, this database has almost 2 million records, which means you will never run out of things to read or search for.

Try out our new databases and let us know what you think.  We'll feature them again at a future date and talk about some of their more intricate details.