Looking for an education iPad app...

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning just came out with a great list of educational apps for the iPad - A list of All The Best iPad Apps Teachers Need!

The list is broken down into 32 categories. The apps cover everything form Digital Storytelling to Whiteboard to Writing . There are even apps for research. Personally, I enjoy the Prof Hacker series found in our Chronicle of Higher Education issue we receive in our emails, and I think this list will complement those posts nicely.

Do you have a favorite app for your classes? Did one of your students let you know of a cool app?  Do you recommend an app to students to help them stay organized? If so, pass it on to the DC Library and we can start a list of our own! (Even if it's not necessarily educational in nature, pass it on...we all need a little downtime in our busy lives!)

Theresa

Wishing Everyone a Fun and Safe Break...

The DC Library would like to wish everyone at the Downtown Campus a fun and safe break, no matter how or where you plan on spending it. 

Just few tidbits before you go...

• The DC Library Group Study Session are still going on until next Wednesday (12/12). (click here for times)
• The DC Library will be open during Winter Session. Our hours are posted here.

• If you need a last minute tax break, drop off your donation (books and videos) at the library. We will give you a donation slip you can use for this year's taxes!

See everyone in January!
The DC Library Team
Joe, Marianne, Ellen, Kyle, Susan, Veronica and Theresa

Group Study Space Available!

• Do you have students who want to study together?

• Do they need a computer?

• Would they benefit from having a white board space to work on?

• Do you have students working on a presentation and they need to practice?

Send them to the DC Library!

The Library Learning Studio will be available for group study from Monday, November 26th through Wednesday, December 12th, from 9:00am to 12 (noon) and again from 1:00pm - 4:00pm. 

Any questions, just stop by the DC Library or call us at 206-7267.

Reminder to send your students to our Open Lab!

Do you have students who need help finding peer-reviewed articles?

Do you have students who need help formatting a paper? Properly citing an article or creating a Works Cited/Reference page?

Send them to the DC Library!

Just a reminder the Library has its Open Lab now until Thanksgiving.  Students can come in during the scheduled times, or if that is not convenient, they can come any time the library is open and a librarian will help them on all their research needs!

If you have any questions, please feel free to stop by the DC Library or call us at 206-7267.
 
Your DC Librarians...
Joe, Marianne, Ellen, Theresa

New Books at the Library...

Just a reminder that the Library is receiving new books throughout the semester. We highlight four new ones the beginning of each week on the right side of this post - Shelfari. Just click on the "Next" button on the bottom right of the shelf and you will see more titles.

If you want to see our entire new book section, when you come in the library, it is located right in front of the curved seating.

As always, if you have a title you would like the library to purchase for your course, just let us know! Now is a great time to order for the Spring semester.

Any questions, just come by or call us at 206-7267.
Your Downtown Campus Librarians...
Joe, Marianne, Ellen and Theresa

Remind your Students...Open Lab Starts TODAY!

Remind your students that the DC Library's Open Lab starts TODAY - Monday, October 29th!

The calendar with all the hours is posted to the right - feel free to copy/paste or link this to an email or post in MyPima or D2L.

This is a great opportunity for your online students who may not have had a chance to come to the library for help yet this semester. If these times are not convenient, just call the library and a librarian can set up a personal time for them!

Any questions, just come by the library or call us at: 206-7267

Your DC Librarians
Joe, Marianne, Ellen and Theresa

Library’s Open Lab Hours Posted!

Send them to the Library’s Open Lab!

 The DC Library is having an Open Lab where they can come and work on…

•  Papers   
•  Projects
•  any academic assignment

A librarian will be available for assistance with:

• Research   
• Citations   
• Formatting   
• Exploring/selecting a topic
• any help they need!

Where and When? The Calendar below has all the dates and times!

(note: if those times don’t work for you, just stop by the library and we will set up a time for you)

For more information, stop by the Library or call us at 206-7267

Congrats to our Banned Book Week Winner!

Congrats to our Banned Books Week contest winner, Marlena H.! 

Marlena won a $10.00 gift card to Bookmans to buy anything she wants to read (banned, challenged, or not)! 

Thanks to all who entered.

Library Resources for Your Courses...

Your DC Librarians have been busy creating information resources to enhance your courses.

1.  LibGuides: Research Guides are subject and course guides created on a wide variety of topics. Explore the dozens we’ve already created, or request one for your course.

URL: http://libguides.pima.edu/home

2.  Faculty Resource Guide is a special LibGuide created just for instructors, with links to dozens of PCC Library resources, such as copyright information, an image database, links to educational streaming videos, and video tutorials on locating and citing quality research resources.

URL: http://libguides.pima.edu/faculty

3. Video Tutorials - created by PCC Librarians they are 5-min. or less, each covering a common issue faced by students or faculty when conducting research, such as finding appropriate sources, navigating databases, citing sources and more.You can link to them directly in your MyPima or D2L courses!

URL: http://libguides.pima.edu/content.php?pid=137444&sid=1874877

4.  Streaming Videos - you can link directly to our academic streaming videos! Films on Demand has hundreds of videos broken down in small segments - assign all or part. VAST is new this semester and also has streaming videos. You can search either by topic or subject. Some of the subjects are:  American History, Anthropology, Art and Art History, Biology,  Black Studies, Business & Economics, Communications, Computers and Technology,  Counseling & Therapy, Criminal Justice, Dance,  Education, Environmental Science, Ethnic Studies, Geography, Health, Humanities, Math, Opera, Politics and Current Affairs, Psychology, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Sociology, Theater, Women's and Gender Studies, World History, World Language and many more!

URL: Films on Demand:  http://0-digital.films.com.library2.pima.edu/Dashboard.aspx

URL: VAST:  http://0-vasc.alexanderstreet.com.library2.pima.edu/

5. Gale Virtual Reference Library - contains hundreds of specialized online encyclopedias and dictionaries on the arts, business, education, environment, history, law, medicine, science and social science.

URL: http://0-infotrac.galegroup.com.library2.pima.edu/itweb/pima_main?db=GVRL

6. Oxford Reference Online - provides access to 135 Oxford reference e-books.

URL: http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.library2.pima.edu/

For more information, contact your any DC Librarian by stopping in, calling (206-7267) or email!

Joe Brewer jbrewer@pima.edu

Marianne Harris mharris12@pima.edu

Ellen Blumberg eblumberg@pima.edu

Theresa Stanley tcstanley@pima.edu

Library Book Sale ~ Sept 18 & 19

The Downtown Campus Library Fall Book Sale!!

When:  Tuesday and Wednesday (September 18th & 19th) 

Where: Amethyst Room

Time: 9 am - 6 pm

 Prices: $2.00 for hard covers
            $1.00 for soft covers
            $  .50 for pocket paperbacks



*if you still have items you would like to donate to the library, please bring them to the library by the end of this week or to the Amethyst Room on Monday (September 17).

New Library Web Page...

With the beginning of the semester the Library's new web page came online. (I know it is bad timing, but it just worked out that way.)

We have incorporated collapsible headings. To search for books, click on the green bar titled "Books and More" to see the search box and other options for searching the catalog (see image).

For databases, our research guides and encyclopedia - do the same, just click on the respective green bar for search options.

One thing we think everyone will appreciate is that our public page looks the same as our MyPima page!!

However, with change comes edits. If you have library resources in your courses (which we hope you have), you may need to make changes to how students find those resources. We already have had students tell us their instructor's direction are not correct. If you would like help with this, just contact the library and we will be glad to assist you.

And with change also comes the opportunity for comments! Please feel free to let us know what you think of the new web page. Feel free to email me (tcstanley@pima.edu) or stop by. We will be collecting comments through November so we can present a list of any changes to web services for the spring semester. 

Have a great Fall Semester!
Your DC Library Team...
Joe, Marianne, Ellen, Kyle, Susan, Veronica and Theresa

Introducing our Two New Librarians...

Ellen and Marianne, our newest Librarians!

The DC Library would like to introduce you to our two new librarians: Marianne Harris and Ellen Blumberg. If the names sound familiar, it is because they were adjuncts for us last spring.

Let me have them introduce themselves to you...

Marianne:

My name is Marianne Harris, and I’m a native Tucsonan.  Prior to joining the Pima Community College Library, I was employed as a high school English teacher for nine years.  As an undergrad, I played volleyball for PCC and plan a return to the courts this fall--I find I can’t help myself after having watched the world’s best athletes compete in the London Olympics!  In addition to watching and playing volleyball, I enjoy writing and reading poetry (Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins is a new favorite), traveling with my family and gazing at cloud formations.

Ellen:

I’m excited and happy to be joining the Pima Community College Downtown Campus Library staff.  My husband and I moved from Austin to Tucson in 2011 so that he could join the University of  Arizona Department of Pediatrics. Many people look at us quizzically and ask: “why would you move here?” Our answer is that we finally got our 3^rd child out of the nest (woo hoo) and were ready for an adventure. We wanted to live in a university town where education is valued, find a warm climate, and were enchanted with the mountains that surround Tucson.  My career in education has included working as a classroom special education teacher, school psychologist, education specialist at the state level, and librarian. Working as a high school and college librarian has been unquestionably the best part of my career. In my free time, I (of course) love to read. Currently I’m in a phase of reading Asian-American historical and mystery fiction. My husband and I also enjoy travel, the theatre, and walking in Sabino Canyon. We’re searching out all the cool restaurants, food trucks, gastropubs and pubs in Tucson. Any recommendations?

DC Library Welcomes Everyone Back!!

The DC Library would like to welcome everyone back! We hope everyone had a great summer - maybe time to travel and relax!

We have a lot going on at the library. To note just a few...

- - Library Sessions. Be sure to schedule your library sessions. The Fall semester is typically our busiest time. We will make every effort to get you your preferred day and time. Come by the library or call us at 206-7267.

- - Revised Library Site! Our Library site was just released on Wednesday afternoon, so check it out. Also, due to popular demand our web space in MyPima (look for the Library tab) and our public web space are nearly identical. Check them out and let us know what you think!

- - New Items! As always, new materials came in throughout the summer, so come and check them out!  On a similar note, if you have an item that you would like to have the library add to its collection, that would supplement your course(s), please send us the name, author and year published and we will make every attempt to order it. It takes about 4 weeks for new items to appear on our shelves, so let us know early!

As always, the library is here for your students and you. If there is anything we can do for you, just let us know!

The DC Library Team
206-7267

Want to Join an Online Book Club?

Hope you are having a great summer!I just came across this and thought I would share in case you are looking for some reading material. (With the clouds cooling things off, it is finally nice enough to sit outside in the evening!)

The FAIFE (Freedom to Access and Information Freedom Exchange) committee of the American Library Association (ALA) has a book club. They have selected Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. (Copies available at PCC Libraries, Pima County public library (hard copy, audio, large print) and of course, Amazon.

For more information, check out FAIFE's book club site. (You will see a link to the book in the gray bar on the left side, under the header image.)

Theresa

DC Library Director

tcstanley@pima.edu

206-7267

The Library's Spring Round-Up

The Downtown Campus would like to thank all faculty, staff and administration for the support of the Downtown Library. Many of you have brought in your class(es) for library instruction or asked us to come to your class. We have seen an increase in students at our reference desk with specific assignments where the library resources play a large part. In our LibGuides, we have seen an increase in their usage. We are so glad we can support your classes in so many ways.

If you are looking ahead to the Summer, or even the Fall semesters, please remember to contact the Library early to reserve your spot on our calendar. Also, if you think you would like a LibGuide for your class (or course), or update an existing LibGuide to reflect revisions in your syllabus, let us know. The summer is a great time for us to work on those projects.

This is also a great time for us to remind you of a way for a librarian have a greater presence in your face-to-face and online learning environments. As an embedded librarian, we can be there to answer your students questions regarding research, citations and the like. This is especially helpful in hybrid and online courses, where a library instruction session may not be feasible. As a TA, we can be there to answer questions or to even lead a research discussion. In a face-to-face class, we can come in periodically to help students before and/or after class, as well to spend a few minutes to answer questions or to refresh them on finding resources. This would be especially helpful in courses that are identified as writing intensive. The NW campus has done this with great results. Others institutions have used Embedded Librarians and found the research papers are of a higher quality.

And for those that will be (or are already) using D2L, it appears the Library will have a presence in that platform. (yea!) We will have more information on that, once things are finalized, but it looks like it will be easier to link to our tutorials and other resources.

Finally, it is with great sadness that we must report one of our librarians, Nancy Schuler, is leaving us. Her husband has accepted a position with a college in Florida, so they will be moving over the summer. While we will miss her, we wish her and her family the best as they begin a new chapter in their lives.

Library Displays - Reserve Your Space Now!

Do you have class projects (2-D or 3-D) that you would like to showcase in the library?

Display space is available starting March 26 through the end of the semester. Reserve your space now by contacting Nancy at nlschuler@pima.edu.

We have two display cases in the main entrance (one large, one table like), and a large display case in the AH entrance. All are enclosed with glass and locked. Feel free to come by and take a look to see if they will fit your needs.

Thanks!

DC Library Team

Don't forget about the Library's Newspaper Databases...

This week our featured resource is: Newspapers

This is the time of year when many students are working on one or more research papers. When they come to the library for assistance we assist them in finding items in our physical collection (here and at other campuses), our reference resources, our article databases and of course finding and evaluating web resources. Many times when we bring using a newspaper as a resource they are unsure if they can.

Our newspaper resources include:

• Arizona Daily Star: Current week's articles
• Ethnic News Watch: Articles from the ethnic, minority and native presses.
• Historical Newspapers: The New York Times from 1851-2005
• Historical New York Times with Index
• Newspaper Source: Articles from various newspapers, including the Arizona Daily Star (09/29/2001 to present), as well as TV and radio transcripts
• ProQuest Newspapers: Articles from various newspapers, including  the New York Times (2002-current)

As you can see, there is a wide variety - both local and national. Newspaper resources are great for exploration of topics, current events, exploring regional tendencies, and interviews (especially the historical NY Times).

If you want to read the Arizona Daily Star online you have two options:

• You can click on the link above or go directly to their website. For those with  with smartphones and/or tablets, you can download their app for their mobile version. (click here to find the app for your device.) 

• The DC Library has purchased a digital version of the paper if you want to read the paper online but in newspaper format (great if you want to reference something by page numbers). Use this link and log in with this information:     Username: AM2001458    Password:  AM2001458

 As always, if you have any questions, or want some more information on using the newspaper resources in your classes, just stop by or call the library!
 The DC Library Team
206-7267

New Series, Send Your Book Requests and more...

DC Library would like to highlight one of our newer resources - Oxford's Very Short Introductions.

These compact books hold a wealth of information, giving students an introduction to a subject with an introduction, its history, how it has influenced society, and other key points. We have almost 300 of them in subjects ranging form religions, technology, sociology, history and more.

These concise books are conveniently located on a spindle near the reference desk. Stop by and check them out. Feel free to pass this information on to your students as they begin their research.

Speaking of research, just a reminder that we have ChromeBooks for the students to check out. If you need computers in your class for a day or the semester, we can assist you with that. Students can use them anywhere on campus and if they need one at home*, their instructor just needs to shoot me an email or come in and we can arrange that!

Also, if you have any items you would like the library to purchase to supplement your courses, just come by with the titles and if possible, the ISBNs. (You can also email them to me.) These could be items for later this spring or for a later semester. We will email you when the item has arrived.

If there is anything else we can help you with...just ask!

Theresa
Library Director
tcstanley@pima.edu

*the ChromeBooks can access any (open) wifi connection. If students do not have Internet at home, they can access Verizon for free, but will need to input credit card information. I have tried this and the credit card is never charged. For more information, contact Theresa.

The Library has Citation Guides for Your Students!

 

Funky Winkerbean 2/1/12

The PCC Library has created some great citation guides for your students!

We have 5 great guides - two for MLA and two for APA that assist students with the most popular resources. There is also a two page MLA guide for those doing literary criticism papers.

The two page guide for each include: 

• books
• articles
• websites 
• library databases
• information on setting up a "Works Cited" or "Reference" page

The four-page guide for each include:

• books
• articles
• websites 
• library databases 
• DVD
• TV 
• Digital images
• information on setting up a "Works Cited" or "Reference" page
• and additional information about parenthetical citations

The guides can be found on the Library's How to Write a Research Paper (scroll to the bottom) 

If you would like to include a link on your course pages, here are the links (all documents are PDFs)
MLA Style

• Beginner's Guide to MLA (PDF)
• Quick Reference Guide to MLA (PDF)
• Gale Literary Criticism Series citation guide (PDF)

APA Format

• Beginner's Guide to APA (PDF)
• Quick Reference Guide to APA (PDF)

If you have any questions, or would like us to come and talk about citations to your class, just stop by or call us (206-7267).

The DC Librarians

Joe, Nancy, Marianne, Ellen, and Theresa