August 2009 Archives

Those studying in Cabell Library sometimes want quiet space to focus on individual work, and sometimes want space to spread out and collaborate with fellow students. Steps have been taken at Cabell Library to make both types of space more available. More space has become available on the second floor, and each floor has been assigned new study "themes." Permitted equipment use on each floor has also been clarified. Watch for new "Which floor is right for you?" posters when you are next in Cabell Library.

The following are new floor themes at Cabell:

• 1st and 2nd floors: Collaborative Study and Computing. More first floor group study rooms now have collaborative computing set-ups, and the former International Newsroom has become a group study room that can accommodate up to eight people. Additional study tables have also been added on the first floor. On the second floor, newly opened space has been renovated, including seven offices that are now group study rooms. Other group furniture and computing is being installed in adjacent spaces. An electrical upgrade was also completed, thanks to the help of Technology Services. On the first and second floors, headphones, MP3 players, and cell phones (set on silent) may be used if they are not disruptive.
• 3rd floor: This floor has become the Quiet Study floor. Only the occasional whisper will be permitted. Head phones and texting are permitted if the phone is set to silent and the head phones do not emit noise that disturbs others.
• 4th floor: The fourth floor has become the Silent Study area. No conversation whatsoever is permitted in or around its study spaces. Also, no cell phones, headphones, MP3s or any type of similar equipment is permitted. 

Thank you for respecting your fellow researchers.

Nominations are now being accepted for The Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award. The award, administered by ALA's Public Information Office and Campaign for America's Libraries, encourages library users to recognize the accomplishments of librarians who have helped enrich their education and/or succeed in their research endeavors. Nominations for librarians in college, community college, and university libraries run through October 19, 2009.

Up to ten librarians will be honored, each receiving $5,000 and recognized at an awards ceremony in December 2009. All winners to be announced in early November. Each nominee must be a librarian with a master's degree from a program accredited by the ALA in library and information studies or a master's degree with a specialty in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Nominees must be currently working in the United States at an accredited two- or four-year college or university. For more information, including the online nomination form and tools to help promote the award, visit http://ww.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

American Library Association Promotes Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week
Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 26 - October 3, 2009

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual American Library Association event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library is named for noted Richmond author James Branch Cabell (1879-1958). Cabell's "Jurgen" (1919) was considered pornographic by some and was banned soon after its publication. A trial over its content brought the reclusive writer national fame. Read more about Cabell and the Banning of Jurgen.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress. Learn more about Banned Book Week from the American Library Association, including the list of the ten most challenged book titles for 2008, and a section titled "what you can do" to help fight censorship.

Pediatric Care Online, developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), provides quick access to many different pediatric resources from your desktop or mobile device. A keyword search will show results from the integrated reference library, practice guidelines, patient handouts and other clinical tools. Content includes:

• Point-of-Care Quick Reference - Over 240 select topics taken from the AAP Textbook of Pediatric Care outlined for quick retrieval of information
• The new AAP Textbook of Pediatric Care - Over 3,000 pages of detailed information and recommendations
• Bright Futures - Comprehensive health supervision guidelines to help make the most of well-child visits
• Red Book Content - Detailed information from the AAP Red Book on over 200 childhood infectious diseases
• Interactive Periodicity Schedule - Interactive chart providing preventive screening and recommended actions for each well-child visit
• Signs & Symptoms Search - Quickly suggests diagnoses based on selected signs and symptoms
• Patient Handouts - Hundreds of patient handouts with easy to read explanations for many conditions and procedures
• Forms & Tools - Resources to help screen, track, and record clinical information

Pediatric Care Online is available to VCU affiliates from the VCU Libraries list of Databases A-Z. For off-campus access, login with your VCU eID and password. In addition to access via the Web, select content can be downloaded to handheld devices and smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile devices. This resource is provided by the VCU School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, in partnership with the VCU Libraries.
 

Phone service is currently unavailable for Cabell Library Circulation and Reference.

Cabell Library Media and Reserves can be contacted at (804) 828-1088 up until 10pm Sunday evening. VCU Networking Services has been contacted and is actively working on the problem.

Update: Phone service was restored at 8:15pm.

Group study rooms in both James Branch Cabell and Tompkins-McCaw Libraries are in constant demand as students working together seek a place to study and collaborate. VCU Libraries is pleased to announce additions and enhancements to group study room space.

Newly available space on Cabell Library's second floor was renovated for public use over the summer, including seven staff offices that became group study rooms. This brings the total number of group study rooms in Cabell to twenty-two. Plans for the new rooms include equipping them with whiteboards and computers with oversize monitors for group computing. In the space just outside of the new group rooms, more collaborative workspace, complete with expanded electrical access and whiteboards, is also available. Students began using the new spaces even before all the furniture was installed.

Thanks to the generosity of VCU Facilities Management, this summer four of the group study rooms at the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences received a much needed face lift with new paint, ceiling tiles, and carpet. Earlier in the year, two group study rooms were equipped with computer workstations and large plasma screens. In addition, the Instructional Media Workshop has been converted to an openly available Multimedia Collaboration Room with additional seating.

Check out the new and renovated study rooms and prepare to collaborate at the VCU Libraries!

Become familiar with Cabell Library early and save on hassles later in the semester. Orientation Tours meet inside the first-floor main entrance of Cabell Library and last 30 minutes. Participants will learn about the facility, collections, and other resources, as well as how library services and staff can assist visitors in completing their work.

For more information about these tours and other VCU Libraries events and workshops, visit the VCU Libraries events page.

Orientation Tour Schedule:

Friday, August 21
11:00 a.m.    
2:00 p.m.    

Saturday, August 22
11:00 a.m.

Sunday, August 23
3:00 p.m.    

Wednesday, August 26
2:00 p.m.   

Thursday, August 27
1:00 p.m.   

Friday, August 28
1:00 p.m.

VCU Libraries is recruiting students for the Cabell Library Undergraduate Advisory Committee. CLUAC meets monthly to discuss library issues and participate in a variety of library service activities. Interested and motivated students are encouraged to find more details and complete an application. The application deadline is August 28. Please contact Jennifer Roach (828-6696) if you have more questions.

Words on Paper, Words on Screen is an exhibition organized for VCU's James Branch Cabell Library by Stephen Vitiello from the department of Kinetic Imaging and Yuki Hibben, Collection Librarian for the Arts, VCU Libraries.

This show brings together a diverse collection of artworks, by current and former undergraduate and graduate students from across the School of the Arts, including Kinetic Imaging, Painting and Printmaking, Media Art and Text, Crafts and Material Studies, and Sculpture and Extended Media. Each of the works selected integrate text as a visual element. These paintings, sculptures, videos, and drawings will be hung on and around the columns that run throughout Cabell Library's first floor.

Presenting an exhibition of art and text is intended as a natural link to exhibiting in VCU's heavily used library. It is also meant to look at current trends in contemporary art as interpreted by some of the school's most promising young artists.

This show includes a group of drawings by Leah Beeferman, from her series Monitoring the architecture of science, which she describes as "a studious, imaginative investigation of space-bound and land-based far-traveling and distant-looking orbiting and non-orbiting structures." In addition, Ali Miharbi's digital variation on a score by Fluxus artist Eric Andersen Opus 46 is included. One of the most unusual pieces in the show is The Book, a book buried and left to decompose by former Sculpture student Nic DeSantis. Desantis writes, "The Book depicts a burial process where consciousness becomes dust, which portrays the beauty of decay, Alzheimer's, and rust, and asks, 'At what point does reading become writing?'"

This exhibition is sponsored by the VCU Friends of the Library and is part of an ongoing effort to showcase the talents of VCU's student, faculty and alumni artists and to foster partnerships between the VCU Libraries and other VCU departments. For additional information about the VCU Friends of the Library, visit us online.

Update: our storage was successfully expanded and the catalog was back online by Saturday morning, August 8th.

The VCU Libraries Catalog will be unavailable for most of the weekend from Friday evening at 6 p.m. through Sunday morning (August 7-9). As an alternative, use WorldCat to search holdings in the VCU Libraries collections.

The extended outage will be used to expand our storage and support growth in our collections and services. We apologize for the inconvenience.