New JSTOR Collections Added

The Library is pleased to announce that three additional JSTOR collections have been acquired:

Arts and Sciences I
Arts and Sciences II
Arts and Sciences Complement

These collections are in addition to the Language & Literature collection, which was purchased last year.

JSTOR offers you the ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. The database includes the complete scholarly runs of core scholarly journals, many as far back as the 1800s. Please note that JSTOR is not a current issues database. There is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR.

We can't provide access to the entire JSTOR collection for financial reasons, but we are are providing access to much of the core content of JSTOR.

Visit our JSTOR page for more information.

Foreign Films

A selection of foreign films on DVD like Amelie (France), Run Lola Run (Germany) and Zhou Yu's Train (China) are currently on display in the Recreational DVD area. You can see what other foreign films we have here.

Come on, give subtitles a try! :-)

Play Ball!

In the April Monthly Book Spotlight, baseball fan/Coordinator of Public Services Jonathan Coe writes about the biography Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss.

Trial of Blackwell Synergy Full-Text Journal Collection

The Library is conducting a trial of Blackwell Synergy, the home of over 1 million full-text articles from over 850 journals, from now through April 30. Let us know what you think using the comment form on our page.

Please note: this database is only available from on campus.

Recent Faculty Publication

Here is another recent Niagara University faculty publication:

Stephen Petersen (Philosophy Department)
The Ethics of Robot Servitude. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, January 2007, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p43-54.

Library Receives Professional Development Grant

Thanks to a professional development grant from the Western New York Library Resources Council, the Library will be running a workshop in May called "Assessment Instrument Design and Implementation."

The workshop will be open to all librarians in the region, and the presenter will be Jennifer Herman, Niagara University's Director of Instructional Support.

Contest Winner!

Congratulations to LeRoy S., the winner of our first blog contest!

The March Monthly Book Spotlight

In the March Monthly Book Spotlight, Reference Librarian Michael Lavin writes about The Last Fine Time by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a book about a Polish-American family and the bar they opened on Buffalo's East Side in 1922.

Go Purple Eagles!

Congratulations to our men’s basketball team for winning the MAAC title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament!

If you're interested in past seasons of any NU sports team, we have a collection of NU yearbooks here in the Library. If you're interested in looking at them, just ask the reference librarian on duty.

Contest - Win a Jazzman's Gift Certificate!

I promised you contests this year, so here you go!

Contest #1

Visit the Library between now and Sunday, March 4 and check out the brand new Recreational Reading and DVD displays.

Send me an email telling me what genres they feature, and you'll be entered to win a $5 Jazzman's gift certificate! Easy!

Send your email with "Contest" in the subject line to: gust@niagara.edu before Monday, March 5. The winner will be announced next week.

All NU faculty, staff and students are eligible EXCEPT Library staff.

Recent Faculty Publications

Here are several recent Niagara University faculty publications:

William Cliff (Biology Department)
Case study analysis and the remediation of misconceptions about respiratory physiology. Advances in Physiology Education, December 2006, Vol. 30 Issue 1, p215-223.

Joseph Little (English Department)
Achieving Objectivity Through Genred Activity: A Case Study. Journal of Technical Writing & Communication, March 2007, Vol. 37 Issue 1, p75-94.

Richard Spano, Craig Rivera (Criminal Justice Department) and John Bolland
The Impact of Timing of Exposure to Violence on Violent Behavior in a High Poverty Sample of Inner City African American Youth. Journal of Youth & Adolescence; Oct2006, Vol. 35 Issue 5, p681-692.

Yury Arlinskiĭ and Eduard Tsekanovskiĭ (Mathematics Department)
Non-self-adjoint Jacobi matrices with a rank-one imaginary part. Journal of Functional Analysis, December 2006, Vol. 241 Issue 2, p383-438.

Sylvia Valentin (Education Department)
Addressing diversity in teacher education programs. Education, Winter 2006, Vol. 127 Issue 2, p196-202.

Spring 2007 Newsletter Published

The Spring 2007 issue of Library News has been added to the Library's web site. Check it out and find out about a business database we're trying out called Mergent Online, NU faculty publications, what we're doing as a result of your survey feedback and more!

Countdown to the Academy Awards

Valentine's Day has come and gone, and the romantic movies on display in the Recreational DVD area have been replaced with films that either won the "Best Picture" award or feature an Academy Award-winning performance.

The Academy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, February 25 at 8pm on ABC.

Library Closing 2/14

Due to deteriorating weather conditions, the University and Library will close at 10:10am on Wednesday, February 14.

The History of Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Learn more about this romantic observance in this entry from The Columbia Encylopedia.

Weather Web Sites

Meteorologists are predicting a big, non-lake effect snowstorm for tonight. To keep an eye on the forecast, here are a few weather web sites:

• National Weather Service
  
• Weather Channel
  
• Weather Underground
  

Most Popular Recreational Books and DVDs

Reading books for fun and watching DVDs are two pastimes we support through our Recreational Reading and DVD Collections. Both collections are conveniently located on the first floor near the Circulation Desk. These books are shelved alphabetically by the author's last name, and DVDs are shelved alphabetically by title.

Here are our ten most popular recreational book titles:

1. Our Lady of the Forest - David Guterson
   
2. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
   
3. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
   
4. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
   
5. Girl Talk - Julianna Baggett
   
6. The Amityville Horror - Jay Anson
   
7. The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
   
8. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
   
9. The Wedding - Julie Garwood
   
10. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
    

These are our ten most popular recreational DVDs:

1. Garden State
   
2. Closer
   
3. Napoleon Dynamite
   
4. Traffic
   
5. Hotel Rwanda
   
6. The Incredibles
   
7. Mean Girls
   
8. Hitch
   
9. Crash
   
10. Finding Neverland
    

Romantic Books and Movies for Valentine's Day

Celebrate Valentine's Day with some romantic books and movies!

Check out our displays in our Recreational Reading and DVD area on the first floor!

The February Monthly Book Spotlight

In the February Monthly Book Spotlight, Reference Librarian Mike Krajewski writes about I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by comedienne Amy Sedaris.

It's Tax Time Again!

Tax forms and instructions are available online and may be printed.

For United States (federal) forms, visit: http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/formspubs/index.html

For New York State forms, visit http://www.tax.state.ny.us/forms/default.htm