Women's History Month...

March is Women's History Month and a great time to highlight one of our premier databases - ARTstor!

Many of you may be familiar with ARTstor as a searchable database with over 1.5 million high resolution art images. These images can be downloaded and used in PowerPoint (and KeyNote for you Mac users). They can be saved to your hard drive, USB drive or burned on a CD. Of course you can use them in your classes. You can even upload your personal images into their image viewer, even group them, to have all your images in one place!

This month, they are highlighting female artist, Karen Finley. When you have few minutes take a look at some of her art and while you are in ARTstor, take a look. If you have any questions on using the database, please feel free to stop by the library or call us at 206-7245 and we will be glad to help.

Your DC Librarians
206-7267

To access ARTstor:

• From MyPima, click on the Library tab
• Click on "Articles and Databases" 
• From the drop down "Browse databases by subject", select "Art & Design"
• Select ARTstor from the list (3rd one)

NOTE: For best results, use either Firefox or Chrome browsers.

Magazines, Journals and Newspapers...

The DC Library has many magazines, journals and newspapersfor you and your students, 79 of them to be exact. While the vast majority of these, and thousands more, can be access via our database, we have print editions to supplement assignments and to provide recreational reading when the brain just needs to rest.

This is the time of year where we evaluate our print serials and determine whether to continue with the subscription. The DC Library spends over $4200 each year on our serials, and as our budget has not increased in over five years while costs have continued to rise, we must make choices based on use. Unfortunately, that means than some DC department chairs and faculty will be getting emails from me informing them that a particular item is not being renewed. To be fair, I do give a department notice the year before the cut that their items' use is very low, in some cases, non existent. The DC Library does not make these decisions lightly. Our thoughts are, if this item is not being used for a course, perhaps there is another item that is better suited or it could be that you are sending your students to our databases. No matter what the reason, the DC Library asks you to understand our position.

If you would like to see what magazines, journals and newspapers we subscribe to, please come and check them out! They are near the LB entrance, next to the curvy seating. The magazines and journals are in the blue spindle, while the newspapers are on the wooden A-frame.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to stop by or call me at 206-7245.
Theresa

 

Check Out the Library's February's Displays...

February is a busy month when it comes to displays. (I think October is the only other month that may give it a run for its money...) While we can't highlight every activity, we try to pick ones that might be relevant to our students and PCC employees, noting the different DC, PCC and community events!


 
This month we have 4 displays for you to peruse. At the LB entry we have a display related to Black History Month, Chinese New Year and the Bilingual program at DC (and the Bilingual Fair that was held last Friday, 2/15).
 
At the AH entry, we have the Spring Disney display promoting Disney's internships. These are paid internships and they are throughout Disney enterprise, reflecting the vast and diverse type of careers that keep Disney a top entertainment company!

If you have something you would like the DC Library to display - student's work, course, research, etc - just stop by the library, or call us at 206-7267 for information.

DC Helps Tucson Earn Historic Recognition...

Tucson is declared a historic city! 

Ok, Tucson's recognition in the "U.S. Preserve America Program" has to do with the city's efforts to preserve historical sites and landmarks, not with all the cool history that has happened in the area.
 
PCC Downtown Campus can be credited as helping a bit - with our neon signs along Drachman! While not mentioned in the story, the neon signs were one of the items pointed out in the story in contributing to the recognition. 


Recently PCC was recieved the "Governor's Heritage Preservation" award for the neon sign project.
 
If you haven't seen them at night, you really need to drive by!

Facebook scam...

This blog tends to be about DC Library related things, but every now and then we through in some technology and other things we think re of interest to the DC community.

I know there are some faculty on Facebook (and the DC Library has just started a Facebook page as a way to keep students informed of DC Library things...no way to get the blog info out to them), so I thought I would pass along some info on a Facebook scam we have all probably seen.

This article talks about all those FB posts you see that say something like "click Like if you hate cancer" or "click Like to get this soldier one million likes" - - this is just a marketing scam or ploy, if you will. Someone is trying to get a page to have a million or so likes and then is selling the page. Doesn't matter what the page says, they are selling it and with it, you and your personal information that goes along with .

I am usually careful on what I "Like" because I don't want to give out my personal info...usually if you like something you will have to approve them seeing your personal information and sometimes it even says you are giving them permission to post of as you!! Why would you let someone post as if they are you!!! Even being careful, I did see a post in my name that I did not do, so I went in to remove it. (If you want help on removing posts from your FB page, just come by the library.)

So, here's the article link: http://daylandoes.com/facebook-like-scams/

I am not saying not to "Like" a page, but just be knowledgeable about what you are really doing when you click that thumb.

ProfHacker...Medical Emergencies in the Classroom

I am a big fan of ProfHacker. Every morning when I turn on my computer I try to at least read the ProfHacker posts in The Chronicle of Higher Education. (Thanks Pima for the subscription, although you can read ProfHacker from their blog without logging in to The Chronicle.)

I have learned much about technology, MOOCs, organization and even learned from their mistakes, which they are nice enough to share. Today's post was "Medical Emergencies in the Classroom." Luckily, my library sessions have never had a medical emergency, and much of what is said is common sense, but still nice to be reminded.

The top points in the article were:

• Know who to call in an emergency. For us it would be the campus police dispatch at x2700, or 911.

• If you teach in a space with unrealiable cell phone coverage, know where the closest landline phone is.  We are fortunate that Pima has a landline in every classroom. 

• Take a first aid / CPR class. Again, Pima Occupational & Professional Development (OPD) offers a first aid class. 

• To see all of the OPD courses, go to Pima's INTRANET (via MyPima) and in the search box type in Professional Development Calendar.
• The link to the calendar is in the first bullet under the first heading (Organization and Profession Dev) 
• I don't see a search box for searching the calendar, so do a "FIND" (CTRL F) for first aid. It looks like the next first aid class is February 28th. The directions for registering are at the top of the page.

• If the student has a friend in the class, it might be comforting to have that person stay 
• Finally, secure the student's valuables - purse, laptop, backback, wallet, etc. 

 Again, all this is not new information, but a nice reminder of what to do if something were to happen.