Student Library Newsletter

In this issue:

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! We currently have collected 97 stockings. Will you help us reach our goal to fill as many stockings as last year? If you're part of campus group don't forget to take advantage of the CLP Credit offered.  

 The funeral homes will provide the stockings -- so in order to help us know how many to request, please fill out the form below. The deadline to sign up is Friday December 6th. Please return your filled stockings by December 11th.  We will contact you via email when your stocking(s) can be picked up. A partial list of 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!  Individual donations add up and can help us make more stockings. There is 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.

Therapy Dogs 

Therapy dogs will be visiting the library on Study Day from 1 - 4pm 

Come give them some headpats and extra belly scratches to help alleviate finals stress. 

Christmas Display

On display in December you'll find Christmas books in the library lobby. Stop in to check out a book for the holidays. Some are wrapped up like presents so their titles will be a surprise! There are also unwrapped titles for you to browse.

Also, don't forget about our Christmas movie collection. Stop in the  library lobby to browse our collection. We have a great selection of classics and newer titles.

Meet HENRY

by: Gretchen Maxeiner

Smart searching in the library catalog

You’ve probably already noticed that you can go a long way in Henry (library.gcc.edu:8080/) with basic keyword searching. The site has a simple search box, and you can type just about anything there and get results! But here are a few tips that can help you go further.

• Use quotes around a phrase

If you type food banks into the search box, Henry sees two individual words and will bring you all results that have something to do with food and something to do with banks. Not helpful! But if you type “food banks” as your search (enclosing the words in quotes), Henry knows you mean it as a phrase, and your results will really have to do with food banks.

• Work the filters

You don’t have to start with a killer search to end with spot-on results. Run a simple search, and then use filters to refine the results to what you really want. Do you want just DVDs? Do you only want things published in a particular year? Do you mean books by Charles Dickens, or do you want books about him? Look for the filters along the left of the results screen.

• Try Henry’s advance search

If you want to go beyond simple keyword searching, skip the search box and click on the “Advanced Search” link next to it. The advanced search screen gives you options to:

• categorize your search terms (author? subject?)
• select how you intend terms to be handled (exact match? start of the data? an exclusion?)
• string together multiple searches.

You can, for example, search with some words from a title and some words from the author’s name and let Henry know what’s what. You can also exclude words from your results, which is a handy way to, say, target works on Martin Luther without having MLK appear in the results.

• Know what Henry searches on

Unlike many search tools on the web, Henry does not search full text. How could it? Instead it searches a “catalog record”, which is a set of data describing a resource. This includes information like titles; authors, editors, directors, etc.; notes and other identifying details; subject headings; and sometimes titles and authors at a chapter level. Knowing this may help you with your search strategy. If narrow terms aren’t getting you anywhere, try broader terms such that might apply to the whole book.

What's the deal with DOIs in Citations?

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency (the International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet. The publisher assigns a DOI when your article is published and made available electronically.

All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash. The prefix is a unique number of four or more digits assigned to organizations; the suffix is assigned by the publisher and was designed to be flexible with publisher identification standards.

We recommend that when DOIs are available, you include them for both print and electronic sources. 

The location of the DOI can depend on many things. Here are some places to look for the DOI:

• First page of the electronic journal article
• Near the copyright notice
• Database landing page for an article
• Hidden behind a button
• In the citation generated by the database

Not every electronic journal article has a DOI. If no DOI is available and you retrieved the journal article online, you should include the persistent URL.

Comment Box 

Finals Hours & Christmas Break Hours

Friday (12/13) 7:30am - 1am

Saturday (12/14) 8am - 1am

Sunday (12/15) 1pm - 1am

Monday (12/16) 7:30am - 1am

Tuesday (12/17) 7:30am - 7pm

Wednesday - Friday (12/18 - 12/20) 8am - 5pm

CLOSED  Saturday (12/21) - Wednesday (1/1)

The Library will reopen on Thursday (1/2) from 8am - 5pm

Meet your Library Staff

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

 Meet Amy Cavanaugh, Instruction Coordinator and Reference Librarian 

How long have you worked at Buhl Library?

• 18 years. I previously worked at a branch campus of Indiana University and the Bartholomew County (Indiana) Public Library. My first library experience was working in the Clarion University library while I was a student there.

Tell us a little about your educational background & work at GCC:

• I have an A.A. in liberal arts from Cottey College (Missouri), a B.A in American History from Clarion University and my library science Masters from Clarion University.  
• I have worked in all aspects of libraries, but I found my calling in reference work. I love helping library users with their questions; I enjoy meeting people and have fielded all kinds of questions.

Name 2 things that people might not know about you?

1. I can drive a manual car (aka: stick shift) & usually alternate driving a tiny little Fiat Abarth and a Dodge Ram truck.
2. I grew up on the other side of the state – my hometown is Doylestown and I will gladly talk food superiority with you.

Just for Fun! - A Reading Gift Guide for Christmas 

Book & Movie Recommendations