Faculty/Staff Library Newsletter

In this issue:

Faculty Book Talk with Dr. Gillis Harp

All are welcome to join us on Wednesday November 20th at 4pm to hear Dr. Gillis Harp talk about his newest book, Protestants and American Conservatism in the Biblical Reference Room in Buhl Library. 

Stockings for Soldiers

This is our third year collecting Stockings for Soldiers for the holiday season with Black Funeral Homes in Stoneboro and Sandy Lake.  The stockings are donated to homeless veterans in Erie and Pittsburgh. Last year we were able to fill 145 stockings for our veterans!   
 
The funeral homes will provide the stockings -- so in order to help us know how many to request, please fill out the form below. We will contact you via email when your stocking(s) can be picked up. Items requested include:

-  Deodorant, toothpaste & toothbrushes and soaps (all travel size) 

-  Hats, gloves and socks

- Crossword books, word search books, playing cards  and stamps

- PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE: food, candy, batteries, or weapons (pocket knives)

If you would like to donate individual items without placing them in a stocking, that’s great too!  There will be a collection box in the library lobby.

CLP Credit Offered! Groups of less than 20 can fill 1 stocking to earn credit and groups with more than 20 members can earn credit for filling 2 stockings.

Used Book Sale

​Thank you to everyone who shopped at our Used Book Sale!

We hope you found some great titles to take home with you or to give as gifts. With all of the money we raised from the sale, we were able to donate $710 to the Student Government Association!

Why not Spring ahead this Fall?

by: Kim Marks

It's only the beginning of November, but with Thanksgiving, Finals, and Christmas approaching in rapid succession, the Spring semester will be here before we know it. But don't let this get you down -- you can turn that frown upside down by getting a jumpstart on your spring preparations so that you can enjoy the holidays and break from classes! 

Here are a few tips and reminders:

Assignments & Syllabi

Considering a change in assignments? The library can help by dry running your assignment and identifying any potential research pitfalls your students may encounter. In addition, alerting the library to new assignments enables us to gather and/or purchase materials to support the assignment. All we need is a quick email with the assignment details to get the ball rolling!

Less than happy with the quality of sources students are using for assignments? Buhl Library has over 100 research guides available across a variety of disciplines, courses, and minors. For a full list, click here. If you don't see one to send your students to, no problem. We're happy to collaborate with faculty to develop new guides to meet your needs. Library instruction tailored to your class and/or assignment is also available by request.

For additional information or help with any of these services, email Kim Marks or Amy Cavanaugh.

Requesting Books for the Library

Want to make sure certain titles are on our shelves next spring? The deadline for Fall book orders is November 21st, so now is the perfect time to consider the topics from your Spring syllabi and assignments. If you have titles you would like to see here come spring, please submit them to the library or your library representative before Thanksgiving Break.

Have you published a book recently or have one on the way later this year? If so, please let us know by completing this brief form. Buhl Library purchases copies of faculty publications so that your students, college staff, and other faculty can read your work. 

Winter Online & Intersession Courses

Are you teaching a new course for Winter Online or Intersession? Whether you'll be teaching on campus or on the go, the library is available to you and your students 24/7! Simply activate the GCC Library VPN on your campus laptop to have the library at your (and your students') fingertips when you are off-campus.

Have questions about our services or access during these courses? Please ask -- we're happy to answer your questions. You can also view the hours Buhl Library is open during December and January by viewing our calendar here.

NEW Biography Reference Bank 

• Coverage of more than 790,000 individuals, over 94,000 of whom have an associated full-text biography
• More than 4 million records
• Links to more than 650,000 related full-text articles, as well as abstracts and images from thousands of periodicals
• A searchable collection of more than 35,000 images
• Substantive narrative profiles averaging 3,000 words in length

Biography Reference Bank allows you to quickly find the content you are looking for. Users can search for individuals based on any combination of occupation, activity, gender, place of origin, birthday and lifespan. Results can be limited by source type, and searchable indexes can be used to browse by biography name, document type, geographic terms and more.

This collection of original content is continuously supplemented with new biographies and updated versions of preexisting articles, giving users up-to-date information on featured subjects.

NEW 7th Edition APA Style Guide Changes 

To find out how APA is changing and what's new in the seventh edition, please visit their website.

Our new copies have been ordered and we be in soon. Copies of the manual will be available in Buhl Library, the Curriculum Library and the Writing Center for your students to use. If you would like to be notified when they come in please email Kim Marks.

Featured Documentaries - Films on Demand

Did you know that you have access to over 2,000 documentaries and video clips in our Films on Demand collection? They're perfect for showing in class and they're available to watch anywhere on your college issued laptop as long as you're connected to the Library VPN. 

Kristallnacht

The anniversary of Kristallnacht is November 9th and 10th. This event is also known as the Night of Broken Glass because of the widespread destruction of Jewish synagogues, homes and business buildings throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938. 

In remembrance we wanted to highlight a PBS documentary called The Last Survivors which tells the story of many of the last remaining survivors of the Holocaust who experienced this terrible event as children. 

Veterans Day

Veterans Day is coming up on November 11th. Watch an important and moving story about Veterans coming home from the Iraq War. Alive Day Memories released in 2009 by HBO tells the story of several Iraq War soldiers returning home with serious injuries. Listen to their stories as they recount the day they narrowly escaped death, also known as their alive day. We also have this video in DVD format too. 

Comment Box 

Fall Book Order Deadline

Thanksgiving Break Hours

Friday (Nov 22) 7:30am - 5pm

Saturday & Sunday (Nov 23 + 24) CLOSED

Monday - Wednesday (Nov 25 - 27) 8am - 5pm

Thursday - Saturday (Nov 28 - Nov 30 ) CLOSED

Sunday (Dec 1) 5pm - 1am

Regular semester hours resume Monday Dec 2nd!

Meet HENRY

by: Gretchen Maxeiner

Discovery vs. Henry - Getting to know the library’s search tools

There are two great tools available to help you find the resources you need in the library collection. Which should you use when?

Discovery

Discovery allows you to search across most of the library’s resources, both what’s on the shelves and what’s in our online databases.  It’s like Google for the library.

Pros

• It’s convenient. You can search almost everything in the library at one time. You don’t need to know which database would be best for your research or decide what type of library resource you want to target.

Cons

• It can be overwhelming. Because it searches so much, you might get a lot of results. For example, a search on “Bible” retrieves over 475,000 results!
• It’s generic. Discovery pulls information from a lot of different sources and does the best it can with it. But it lacks the specialized search features you may find in individual databases or in Henry that are designed for a field or resource type.

Best for when you are

• open to a mix of resource types (books, articles, online content, etc.)
• especially interested in journal articles
• looking for a very narrow topic and really need to explore all options.

Access Discovery through the search box in the middle of the library home page.

Henry

Henry is our traditional library catalog, focusing on the library’s physical collection of books, DVDs, journal titles, etc. It also includes many eBooks that are part of our permanent online collection.

Pros

• It has great features. With features specifically designed for these types of materials, you can track items based on where they are housed in the library or how recently they were added to the collections, virtually browse the shelves, and more.

Cons

• It’s just one piece of the pie. Henry doesn’t include as much online content as Discovery or provide access to journal article information.

Best for when you are 

• looking for print books or DVDs
• researching a broad topic and want to find just a few good books covering it
• interested in using features that are especially suited to searching physical library collections.

Access Henry from the “Books (Library Catalog)” link under “Find” on the library home page.

We will explore many features of Henry over the coming months. Good to meet you, Henry!

Meet your Library Staff

Each month we will feature a Q&A with a Buhl permanent staff member or student from the library.

 Meet Megan Babal, Public Service and Outreach Librarian 

How long have you worked at Buhl Library? 6 years

Tell us a little about your educational background & work at GCC: I have a B.A. in History from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. You’ll mostly see me at the front desk answering questions but one my favorite job duties is planning the fun events we have in the library, like bringing in therapy dogs. I love the extra needed stress relief they bring during finals for both students and staff!

Name 2 things that people might not know about you?

1. I have a black belt in karate.

2. I once got to feed and pet a sloth. His name is Valentino. He lives at Pittsburgh’s National Aviary.

Book & Movie Recommendations