Tools to Make Your Research Easier

Spitfire at en.wikipedia CC-BY-SA-3.0

Humans are tool users; indeed, it has been argued that our use of tools is a part of what makes us human. However, it’s been found that a wide variety of primates, crows (both New Caledonian and the kind we see here) and as well as other animals use tools. And why wouldn’t they, given how much a good tool improves a job?

So while we can’t console ourselves that tools make us special, we can console ourselves that it makes us faster and more efficient.

With that enticement, check out our New Tools and Widgets page, where we’ve listed information about a wide variety of our tools. Check back now and again as we’ll add new tools that we find particularly useful, too.

Tools profiled include:

  • Collins LibX toolbar, a tool that connects the open web to library resources,
  • Collins Links toolbar, a tool that brings together all the Puget Sound library resources you’d need to do your research,
  • New York Times article-finder bookmarklets, which let you reload published articles you find on the New York Times after your free 20 articles and read them through our databases.

Have suggestions for a tool you’d love? Let us know in the comments or via Collins is Listening!

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Using e-books Made (Even) Easier

By Design Continuum ($100 Laptop Website) CC-BY-2.5

Have you noticed that Collins Library seems to have a lot more e-books this year? That’s because, well, we do! We’re participating in a great project with all the Orbis Cascade libraries that lets us pool our resources and share e-books from EBL. Collins Library has a lot of other providers of e-books, too, so you’ll see e-books on a wide variety of topics popping up as available at Puget Sound. No matter where the e-book comes from, you’ll be able to discover it in Puget Sound WorldCat or Collins Catalog and access it from a link in the catalog record.

Most of our e-books are usable on the web, the simplest option. But many are also downloadable using Adobe Digital Editions, a free e-reader application. This is a great solution if you’re interested in reading on a desktop or laptop. If you’re using an iPad, e-reader or other mobile device, you can find all kinds of solutions on our e-books resource page, too.

The e-reader and mobile device landscape is changing all the time, so if you notice something different, have a question, or have a tip, please let us know! We’d love to help and learn with you.

To find everything you’d want to know, and, we hope, even more, check out our e-books resources page!

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Found in the Stacks by Rebecca Kuglitsch: Christian Health Science…"

This is a slim little book (Christian Health Science [Flynn Vital Center System of Health Culture] vs. Christian Science“, Call no. RA776 .F65) by W. Earl Flynn, copyright 1907, which was written to instruct the reader on living a long and healthful life. It’s certainly an interesting primary source for early 20th century health trends, but it’s also kind of a hoot to see the photos of physical culture exercises, performed in laced leather shoes, knee breeches, and a tie. Yes, a tie. A sports tie.
 Enjoy!

-Rebecca Kuglitsch

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Stereogranimator Site: Turning Historic Stereographs into Animated Images

Our new Stereogranimator site (which was created by NYPL Labs and allows you to turn historic stereographs from the Library’s collections into animated GIFs or 3-D images) has gotten tons and tons of attention (as well as tens of thousands of hits), so we thought we’d use it for this week’s Caturday! Check out this amazing dancing cat, originally photographed in September 1918. The original image is in our Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views. How cool is it to breathe new life into these old photos? Gotta love it.

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Are You a Procrastinator? Don’t worry – Join the Long Night Against Procrastination

In solidarity with writing centers in Germany, Puget Sound’s Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching (CWLT) will be one of two universities from the US participating in the Long Night Against Procrastination, on March 1.

The Long Night event is designed to help confront those writing tasks we have been procrastinating: papers, grant proposals, homework, and more (we all know what our own specifics are). This event began in Germany in 2009.

At the CWLT, the celebration launches at 3:00 p.m. (German midnight) with German treats, public declarations of non-procrastination, and live interaction with writing centers in Germany. From 4:00 p.m.-midnight, they will be holding regularly scheduled tutoring appointments and writing conferences, and also have special space set aside for those who want uninterrupted time to write quietly, eat some snacks, and stop procrastinating!

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Oscar Winning Film on Books: Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Animated Film

Inspired by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Watch the oscar winning film Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story.

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Found in the Stacks by Jeanne Young: "Where the Wild Things Were…"

Did you know that a lack of danger is hazardous to the world? It’s true, according to this intriguing and informative book found in the stacks called Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators. Located on the fourth floor of our library in the stacks at QL758 .S746 2008, this gem offers a provocative new look at the world’s top predators, and the environmental consequences triggered by their disappearance as a result of the superpredators we call humans.

Read about the cougars that leave Zion, a national park in Utah with increased human activity, resulting in thriving mule deer that over forage the land. Or the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia, where fencing deer out caused a population boom in squirrels, small mammals, and disappearing song birds. In Fontanelle Forest near Omaha, an over-protected forest lacks tree seedlings, birds and butterflies, but thrives in poisonous plants. And no more berries means no more bears. But don’t worry, you’ll also read about some of the wonderful ecological recoveries, lighting some of conservation’s brightest beacons of hope. If you seldom think about disappearing predators, this will give you a world of reason to think again.

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Have you found an intriquing item in our stacks that you want to share with other library users? Then just fill out this Found in the Stacks form and we will consider posting in on the Inside Collins blog and on our web page.

– Jeanne Young

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Class On Demand: A Class Designed for Four+ On Any Topic!

Class on Demand: Instruction Made to Order

Wondering about getting started with RefWorks or Zotero? Working on a group project? Wondering about something your friends or classmates wonder about, too?

We can work with you to arrange a class especially designed for you and three of your best friends on any topic related to research or the library. We’ll design the class on a topic specifically to meet your needs, and any group of 4 or more students can schedule a custom class.

To request a class, just complete this form to tell us more about scheduling and what you’d like to learn:
http://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/collins-memorial-library/services/ask-a-librarian/class-on-demand-form/

Once that’s filled out, we will contact you to set the date and time.

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Pierce County Reads: Author Kristina McMorris Visits Wednesday, Feb. 29th, 7 p.m.

Collins Memorial Library in collaboration with Pierce County Reads presents:


An Evening with Kristina McMorris

Award-winning women’s fiction author

Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012
7-8:30 p.m.
Collins Library, Room 020

Kristina McMorris lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two sons. Her foray into fiction began in the fall of 2006 as a result of interviewing her grandmother for the biographical section of a self-published cookbook intended as a holiday gift for the family. Inspired by her grandparents’ wartime courtship, Kristina penned her first novel, a WWII love story titled Letters from Home.

Endorsed by Woman’s Day and praised by Publishers Weekly as “a sweeping debut,” Letters from Home was released in spring 2011, from Kensington Books and Avon/HarperCollins UK, to wide critical acclaim. The novel was a Doubleday Book Club alternate selection and a Reader’s Digest Select Editions condensed feature. Destined to be a book club favorite, Kristina’s forthcoming novel, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves (March 2012), is a WWII love story complicated by the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans, told from surprising perspectives rarely explored in literature.

Prior to her career as an author, Kristina acted in numerous independent films and major motion pictures, and owned a professional wedding/event planning company. She began hosting an Emmy Award-winning television show at age nine, and most recently served as the six-year host of the WB’s weekly program Weddings Portland Style. Her previous writing background includes being a contributing writer for Portland Bride & Groom magazine and ten years of directing public relations for an international conglomerate. The recipient of more than twenty national literary awards, McMorris is currently working on her next novel.

website: www.KristinaMcMorris.com

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February is African American History Month!

Booker T. Washington delivering his Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary lecture in  1906

The celebration of African American history began in 1925 with African American History Week.  Fifty years later in 1976 African American History Month began and is now celebrated each February.

The Library of Congress has a good overview of the beginnings and development of African American History Month, including links to President Ford’s address in 1975, the first Public Law in 1986, and subsequent congressional resolutions and Presidential messages and Proclamations.   Here is Barack Obama’s 2012 Proclamation.

There are many ways to explore African American History:

Collins Library Resources
The Collins Library subscribes to a rich array of resources related to African American History.

  • Our African American Studies Subject Guide is a great place to start to discover important resources that document the African American experience.  The Collins Library subscribes to a number of electronic subject encyclopedias (including Encyclopedia of Black Studies, Encyclopedia of African American popular culture, and Encyclopedia of African-American Culture) as well as periodical databases where you can find relevant journal articles.  The library also has many current relevant books as noted in the subject guide.
  • The Oxford African American Studies Center is another good starting point for information and includes biographies, timelines, subject entries and primary sources.

Note: For remote access to Collins Library subscription resources, please login with your Puget Sound email username and password.

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress and the National Archives recognizes African American History with this year’s theme “Black Women in American Culture and History”.  The web site honors African American women and the myriad of roles they played in the shaping of our nation. The theme, chosen by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History urges all Americans to study and reflect on the value of their contribution to the nation.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Schomburg Center is a research unit of The New York Public Library.  Two ways you can use their resources remotely are:

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Image caption:
Booker T. Washington delivering his Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary lecture in  1906.
Want to know more about Booker T. Washington?
Check out the books in the Collins Library and the Library of Congress Guide Booker T. Washington: Online Resources

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