Holiday Hours

Here are the Library's upcoming holiday hours of operation:

Friday, December 16: 8am - 8pm

Saturday, December 17: 10am - 5pm

Sunday, December 18: CLOSED

Monday, December 19 - Wednesday, December 21: 8am - 5pm

Thursday, December 22 - Tuesday, January 2: CLOSED

Wednesday, January 3 - Friday, January 6: 8am - 5pm

Saturday, January 7: CLOSED

Student Book Club/Discussion Group

The Library is facilitating a Student Book Club/Discussion Group, and the first book will be The Cider House Rules by John Irving.

If you would like to participate, please read it over your December/January break. The group will meet sometime during the first week of February - date, time and place to be announced. Refreshments will be served.

Happy Holidays (and happy reading)!!!!

Borrowing Books Over Break

Did you know? You may borrow books over the December/January break. The due date is January 19.

Surviving Justice: The December Monthly Book Spotlight

The December installment of the Monthly Book Spotlight has been added to the Library's web site. Acquisitions Librarian Charles Dabkowski writes about Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated.

Intelligent Design in the Science Classroom

The debate over teaching Intelligent Design in the science classroom has been in the news lately. To learn more, take a look at books the Library owns on this topic:

• Why Intelligent Design fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism
  
  
• Does God Belong in Public Schools?
  
  
• Creationism's Trojan Horse: the Wedge of Intelligent Design
  
  
• Debating Design : From Darwin to DNA
  
  
• The Design Revolution : Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design
  
  
• Doubts about Darwin : A History of Intelligent Design
  
  

New Book/DVD List - November 2005

The list of new books and DVDs added to the Library collection in November has been released.

Save Your Work!

As the end of the semester rapidly approaches, you're busy writing papers, making spreadsheets, creating presentations, etc. Unfortunately, sometimes computers crash, freeze or experience other problems.

Don't lose all your hard work -- remember to SAVE frequently!

FYI: You can buy a CD-R (with jewel case) for $1.00 or a floppy disk for 25 cents at the Circulation Desk.

Christmas Fine Amnesty

Do you owe fines to the Library?

You can help rebuild congregational libraries damaged by Hurricane Katrina!

Church and synagogue library organizations across North America are joining forces to ensure a future for congregational libraries damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The National Church Library Association, the Church & Synagogue Library Association and the Catholic Library Association together have established a relief fund to help rebuild affected library ministries.

For each 25 cents you donate, the Library will waive $2.00 worth of fines. Please note that the Fine Amnesty does not apply to lost book charges.

*This program will run through Friday, December 16.*

Thanksgiving Week Hours

Here are the Library's hours for the rest of the week and the weekend:

Tuesday, November 22: 8am - Midnight

Wednesday, November 23: CLOSED

Thursday, November 24: CLOSED

Friday, November 25: CLOSED

Saturday, November 26: 10am- 2pm

Sunday, November 27: Noon - Midnight

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lexis/Nexis Databases

Lexis/Nexis is well-known for providing news and legal information, but it also has several excellent databases. Here are a few:

Accounting Literature consists of 18 accounting sources, including journals and other literature.

Disclosure Reports contains business and financial information extracted from annual and periodic reports filed with the Securities an Exchange Commission for over 10,000 publicly-owned companies. A real strength of this database is the financial ratios calculated for each company.

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research provides access to the Public Opinion Poll, the most comprehensive full-text collection of public opinion in the United States. It covers the full spectrum of public interest including politics and government, public institutions, international relations, business, social affairs and consumer behavior and preferences.

Christmas Fine Amnesty

Do you owe fines to the Library?

You can help rebuild congregational libraries damaged by Hurricane Katrina!

Church and synagogue library organizations across North America are joining forces to ensure a future for congregational libraries damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The National Church Library Association, the Church & Synagogue Library Association and the Catholic Library Association together have established a relief fund to help rebuild affected library ministries.

For each 25 cents you donate, the Library will waive $2.00 worth of fines. Please note that the Fine Amnesty does not apply to lost book charges.

*This program will run from Monday, November 28 through Friday, December 16.*

Google Print - Preserving Public Domain Books

Google is now making a number of public domain books available online via Google Print. A public domain book was never subject to copyright or has an expired copyright and can therefore be made readily available to the public.

In Google Print, you can view entire pages of books and and also search the entire text.

Read more about it in Google's blog.

Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker, the man known as the father of modern management, died at the age of 95 on Friday. The Library owns more than 30 of his books, but a good introduction to his thoughts can be found in:

The Essential Drucker

or

Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management

New Book/DVD List - October 2005

The list of new books and DVDs added to the Library collection in October has been released.

Langston Hughes - The November Monthly Book Spotlight

The November installment of the Monthly Book Spotlight has been added to the Library's web site. Reference Librarian Kristine Kasbohm writes about The Collected Works of Langston Hughes.

Email Question Response Rate

Introduction

The Library sought to assess this performance indicator:

"When the Library is open, reference librarians will respond to email questions within two hours."

Methodology

From September 2, 2005 through October 16, 2005, the Library Director sent 26 emails on different times and on different days to the reference email account, noting the time and asking the reference librarian to respond.

Findings

100% of the responses were within two hours. Response times ranged from 1 minute to 81 minutes. The mean response time was 31 minutes and the median response time was 27 minutes.

Measures to Take

None. The reference librarians met the goal described in the performance indicator.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks became a civil rights pioneer when she refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955. She died on October 24, 2005, and her funeral is today.

If you are interested in learning more about her life, consider borrowing the book Rosa Parks by Douglas Brinkley.

Please note: if the book is checked out, you can place a hold on it. You will be notified when it is returned.

Excellence in Customer Service Award - Fall 2005

Congratulations to Charles Dabkowski, Head of Acquisitions/Periodicals, for being named the Fall 2005 recipient of the Niagara University Library Excellence in Customer Service Award. Charles was recognized for "reference desk service beyond the call of duty."

New Business Database

The Library recently added Business Source Premier via EBSCOhost to its database collection. It provides full text for nearly 8,200 serials, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. Be sure to check out the Enhanced Business Searching Interface which allows you to browse company profiles, market research reports and more.

Book Discussion Group for Students

The Library is exploring the idea of facilitating a book discussion group for students.

An exploratory meeting will take place on Thursday, November 3 at 7:00pm in the Gallagher Student Lounge.

**Please email Samantha Gust (gust@niagara.edu) by Monday, October 31 if you will be attending (we need to plan for refreshments!). Thank you!**