March 2010 Archives
Visit us on your portable device at the new VCU Libraries Mobile site. Quickly find out what hours the libraries are open and how many computers are available. Search more than 40 mobile-optimized scholarly databases to find journal articles. In addition, you can access mobile tools for searching other libraries (WorldCat Mobile) and managing your citations (RefWorks Mobile).
Tell us what you think and what other features you would like to see developed for VCU Libraries Mobile.
VCU Libraries will conduct a series of surveys over the six months to learn how our faculty, students, and staff use library resources and services. Your feedback is extremely valuable to the Libraries. All responses will be confidential.
Surveys will be administered once a month at each library for a two hour time period. The dates and times have been randomly selected and will vary each month.
During the survey, you will be given a short form to complete during your visit. The online survey will appear when you select library resources from the VCU Libraries Web site.
If you have questions or comments about the survey, please contact Nia Rodgers at the James Branch Cabell Library.
Tompkins-McCaw Library will host the traveling exhibit, "The Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 'The Yellow Wall-Paper,'" through May 2 in the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room, room 1-032. The exhibit, sponsored by the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, examines a nineteenth-century writer's challenge to the medical profession and the relationship between science and society. Artist and writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who was discouraged from pursuing a career to preserve her health, rejected the ideas in a terrifying short story titled "The Yellow Wall-Paper." The famous tale served as an indictment of the medical profession and the social conventions restricting women's professional and creative opportunities.
For more information, visit the official exhibit Website.
Students, faculty, and staff with RefWorks accounts who leave VCU may continue to have access through the RefWorks Alumni Program. As a participant in the program, you will be entitled to:
- One free RefWorks account
- 200 MB of file attachment storage
- Use of RefShare to share your folder(s) or account
- Free Web-based training
- Technical support from RefWorks staff
You will create a new account at the RefWorks Alumni Site and transfer your references from your VCU RefWorks account. Your references should transfer intact, including any customization you may have done to the records or to your account. The Get It @ VCU button will not transfer as you will not have access to VCU Libraries electronic resources after you leave VCU.
To request participation in the RefWorks Alumni Program, submit an Ask Us e-mail, or contact the RefWorks Administrators for VCU Libraries:
- Marilyn Scott, James Branch Cabell Library, 804-828-9049
- Alan Williams, Tompkins-McCaw Library, 804-828-1592
By popular demand from students, there is now an Amp energy drink vending machine in the basement of Cabell Library, near the elevators. Current choices include the original Mountain Dew Amp, SoBe No Fear, Relaunch, Overdrive, Traction and Elevate. Don't forget to recycle your drink bottles - - Cabell Library has a number of recycling containers for your use.
The VCU News Center has released a story featuring the VCU Libraries Digital Collections.
VCU Libraries will switch to a new article search platform next week during Spring Break. This will replace the current Articles search that is offered in the search box on the home page. The new platform has proven to be faster, easier to use, and also offers a mobile counterpart.
You can test-drive the new search in advance of the official launch.
The current article search will continue to be available through Databases by Subject.
Film Screening: License to Thrive: Title IX at 35
Tuesday March 23, 2010
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
University Student Commons, Forum Room, Monroe Park Campus
VCU Libraries and University Student Commons & Activities present the 2008 film "License to Thrive: Title IX at 35." Film description from their Web site: "In June of 1972, Congress passed a piece of legislation called Title IX of the Education Amendments, to provide educational access and opportunity for women and young girls throughout the United States. Although most closely associated with sports, no other piece of legislation since the 19th Amendment has been more crucial to opening doors and creating leadership opportunities for women in all arenas, including education, science, math, finance, entertainment, the arts, business, law, and politics." More information on this film available at the "Women Make Movies" Web site.
For a list of library events and instruction classes on both campuses, visit the VCU Libraries Events page.
For information about the current Brown-Lyons Lecture, see the event website.
"Attending the Eichmann Trial: Only Yesterday ... a Half Century Ago"
Presented by Dr. Jack D. Spiro
Thursday, March 25, 2010
7:30 p.m.
W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts
922 Park Avenue
"I must inform the Kenesset that a short time ago one of the greatest of the Nazi war criminals, Adolf Eichmann, was discovered by the Israel security services and will shortly be placed on trial in Israel ..." Fifty years ago, on May 23, 1960, David Ben-Gurion read these words before an astonished Israeli parliament.
Dr. Spiro will discuss how his personal experiences in attending the Eichmann trial and his reactions to its aftermath appear in a larger contextual setting five decades later. What he learned ... what he can't forget and wants to remember fifty years after Eichmann's capture and trial when every fourth citizen of Israel was a Holocaust survivor. What was the dramatic difference in the world's response to the Holocaust before and after trial? Does this wretched accomplice to mass murder help us understand the appalling recurrence of genocide in our own day?
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available for a fee in the West Main Street and West Cary Street parking decks. If special accommodations are needed, please call (804) 827-1165 or (804) 827-1163 prior to March 23, 2009. A reception will be held immediately following the lecture.
The 25th Annual Brown-Lyons Lecture is sponsored by the VCU Friends of the Library, the VCU Center for Judaic Studies, the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond, the Richmond Jewish Foundation, and the Weinstein JCC.
Dr. Jack D. Spiro holds the Harry Lyons Distinguished Chair in Judaic Culture at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also director of the VCU Center for Judaic Studies the VCU Center for Judaic Studies and editor of its online publication, Menorah Review. He has earned two doctorates from the Hebrew Union College and the University of Virginia. He has authored, co-authored, or edited over twenty books and written over forty articles.
Dedicated to the Holocaust Survivors of Richmond
In early 2010, two major earthquakes destroyed cities and devastated the people living in nearby regions. Haiti experienced a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12, destroying much of the area near the capital of Port-au-Prince. On February 27, Chile encountered a 8.8 magnitude earthquake north of Concepcion. The selected resources on the Earthquakes and Other Natural Disasters Resource Guide will link you to various earthquake news, science, and relief Internet sites, as well as information on other natural disasters such as tsunamis.
Resource Guides on a number of different topics are available online from VCU Libraries. Ask Us if you need research assistance on this or any other topic.
As reported in the Cavalier Daily on March 1, 2010 the University of Virginia's Faculty Senate unanimously voted on February 24th to endorse University faculty members retaining more rights to their published works and allowing those articles to be more accessible to the public. The Resolution on Scholarly Publication and Author's Rights states that faculty members may provide electronic versions of their work for an open access electronic repository. This facility will be run by the University of Virginia's library, the Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate's Task Force on Scholarly Publications and Authors' Rights.
The resolution passed was a revision of a resolution on scholarly publications that was brought to the Faculty Senate in November,2009. Faculty Senate Task Force Chair Brian Pusser is quoted in the Cavalier Daily report as saying, "Originally, the resolution said participation would be mandatory by default but that faculty members could sign a waiver to opt out of it. The policy then was revised so that faculty members simply could decide if they wanted to contribute to the repository."
Need a break from school stress? Looking for a creative outlet that does not involve writing papers? The Cabell Library Undergraduate Advisory Committee, CLUAC, is hosting a book art workshop on March 9, 2010. Gay Acompanado from Special Collections and Archives will bring sample book art for background and inspiration; CLUAC member, Christine Stoddard, will lead the hands-on portion of the workshop. Join us for this fun, creative break from classes. No art experience required. All supplies provided.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Third Floor Conference Room
Cabell Library
Space is limited. Register online today. Find out more about what book art is and view examples on the VCU Libraries Web page.
