Monthly Archives: March 2012
Hours for Spring Break
The Library will be open during spring break during the following times:
Spring Break Hours:
| Friday, March 30 | 8:00am – 7:00pm |
| Saturday, March 31 | Closed |
| Sunday, April 1 | Closed |
| Monday, April 2 – Thursday, April 5 | 8:30am – 4:45pm |
| Friday, April 6 | 8:30am – 4:00pm |
| Saturday, April 7 | Closed |
| Sunday, April 8 (Easter) | 7:00pm – 2:00am |
Note: Not all services will be available at all times. There will not be regular reference desk coverage during Spring Break, but we will be available upon request so email us for an appointment or ask for a librarian at the Circulation Desk.
Text Us will be available during Spring Break, but as always, the TextUs service is not staffed when the Library is closed.
You get help from a librarian at any time, day or night, via Instant Message using our Ask Us 24/7 Chat reference service.
EBSCO Databases Back Up and Running
Update: March 28, 2012
All Ebsco databases are functioning again. You can now access Academic Search Complete, PsycInfo, MLA International Bibliography, Art FullText, and all of the library’s subscription databases from Ebsco. These databases were down throughout New York state yesterday due to an error on Ebsco’s part.
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Post from March 27, 2012
All EBSCO databases are down today due to routine maintenance from Ebsco on their site. This means databases including Academic Search Complete, MLA International Bibliography, America History & Life, and Art FullText are not accessible today, but they should be back up and running soon.
If you are looking to use Academic Search Complete, here are some alternative multidisciplinary databases to try:
ProQuest Research Library
Credo Reference
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Opposing Viewpoints
JSTOR
Project Muse
For subject-specific databases, see our Research by Subject Guides for suggestions of other discipline-specific databases that can substitute (or supplement) the databases owned by EBSCO.
Book of the Week: The Hunger Games
Do you have Hunger Games fever? The much-anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novel, The Hunger Games, opened on Friday March 23rd.
Libraries around the nation have been hosting book parties in celebration, with the excitement rivaling the release of the Harry Potter and Twilight films.
But how does this young adult post-apocalyptic trilogy stack up to those other blockbuster series I just mentioned? Reviewers describe how the film manages to transcend its initially adolescent audience, favorably comparing the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, to strong sci fi heroines like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. According to Manohla Dargis of the New York Times:
“Part of what makes the “Hunger Games” books so effective is that they literalize the familiar drama of adolescence, translating the emotional assaults, peer pressure, cliques and the tortured rest into warfare. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” did the same on television, except there the villains were supernatural demons. In “The Hunger Games” the real enemies are adults, including, of course, the parents catching the show on TV.”
In the novel, Katniss is a hard-luck, bow-and-arrow wielding survivor who is forced by the powerful Capitol to fight fellow teenagers from the starved and oppressed outer districts of Panem (a post-apocalyptic North American dystopia). It’s a fight to the death in a televised battle that mixes the pageantry of the Olypmics with the bloodsport of The Most Dangerous Game. Although also caught in a love triangle, Katniss Everdeen differs greatly from Bella Swann of the Twilight series. Katniss hunts to keep her family from starvation. Not only is she quite capable of defending herself, but she also saves the lives of her sister, mother, and love interests Peeta and Gale at various points in the series. She also finds herself at the center of the Districts’ rebellion against the Capitol. While romantic relationships are the main thrust of the Twilight books, political and social issues are at the heart of The Hunger Games. Rather than wallow helplessly in her emotions, Katniss often struggles to ignore them. It’s not easy to fall in love when you are fighting to the death on national television.
Suzanne Collins’ writing is immediate, snappy, and well-edited. A reader can speed through this series faster than one of Katniss’ arrows. Yet Collins does not sacrifice characterization for action. Although you root for her, Katniss is not always a reliable narrator; you do not always agree with her point of view, and this tension keeps you engaged and thinking critically. While teens can identify with Katniss’s rebellious attitude and (often shortsighted) tenacity for self-preservation, adults can appreciate how both the strengths and flaws of her youth make Katniss a richer, more true-to-life character.
For many, the appeal of the series lies as much in its social message as in the love and adventure stories. Like any strong work of science fiction, The Hunger Games creates a future that extrapolates and exaggerates trends in American society today. The Hunger Games is a critique of celebrity, reality TV, mass media, gratuitous sport, and systems of economic and political repression that exploit the poor, working class to provide luxuries to the wealthy, ruling class. The big question of the novel is never whether Katniss will survive the Games themselves but whether she will be able to win over the Capitol audience and–through her cleverness and grit– escape the cycle of media spin and intimidation that the Capitol uses to control her destiny.
You can check out The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay from the Purchase College Library’s Popular Collection or try Westchester Public Library, NYPL, the Purchase Free Library, or Interlibrary Loan. Keep in mind that library waiting lists have been getting very long due to the premier of the movie. The odds of getting this highly in-demand bestseller this week may not be in your favor… but keep trying. It’s worth the wait.
Book of the Week: Steve Jobs
This week’s Book of the Week is Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs, a 2011 biography of the late Apple CEO & founder which was published just after his death.
Walter Isaacson is known for writing compelling biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, and Albert Einstein, and in his latest book he’s painted a well-rounded, moving portrait of Steve Jobs as a brilliant innovator and as a flawed human being.
This blogger’s review of the biography (and, fittingly, the audio book version too) presents a thoughtful and personal analysis of Steve Jobs. How has Steve Jobs affected your life? Your education? The way you listen to music? Lots of food for thought in this biography.
To learn more about Isaacson’s writing process and friendship with Steve Jobs, watch Jon Stewart’s interview with Walter Isaacson from October 2011.
You can borrow Steve Jobs from the Library’s Popular Collection, or request a copy on Interlibrary Loan.
"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish." -Steve Jobs' wisdom is written on the wall
Name Scanley’s Sister!
Our new scanner needs a name! Add your ideas to the red sign by the new scanner.
Thanks to a contest inspired by The Indy, the Library’s beloved document scanner was dubbed ‘Scanley Tucci’ last Fall. Scanley was so popular, the Library decided to give him a sister!
The second scanner, located in the Reference Computer Area (on the side by the Reference 1 printer and the CD shelves), can do all that Scanley does: She scans books, articles & images in .pdf, .jpg or .doc file formats. Like Scanley, the new scanner also allows you to save files to a USB or to email files to your @purchase.edu email …. FOR FREE.
The new scanner also has something Scanley does not– a document scanner designed for sheets of regular 8.5″ by 11″ paper in addition to the book scanning bed.
All she needs now is a name. Help us name Scanley’s Sister! Add your suggestions to the red sign next to the new scanner or submit online!
Write-In @ the Library, Friday March 16th
The Purchase Writers Center is hosting a WRITE-IN on Friday March 16.
Join the Purchase Writers Center Fellows for a WRITE-IN at the Writers Center in the lower level of the Library. Stop by any time between noon and 5 pm.
The Writers Center will supply tables, extra outlets, sharp pencils, and snacks. You will bring your writing, dream notebook, and laptop scribbles and feed off our collective energy.
There will be a short, informal talk around 1 pm by editors of the Westchester Review and Toadlilly Pres about publishing in literary magazines, and an OPEN MIKE at 4pm.
Book of the Week: Celebrating Women’s History
March is Women’s History Month, so to celebrate, I am re-posting a list of women who were National Book Award Finalists between 1950 and 2011. On the National Book Foundation’s website, you can also watch interviews and read speech transcripts from the award-winning authors.
You can check the Purchase College Library Catalog to find fiction, essays, and poetry by these and other female authors. Celebrate women’s history month with some powerful voices!
Here’s a sampling (from the Library’s collections) of women writers who won the National Book Award in the past:
Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan Reads From Her Memoir on March 14 @ 10 am
Dr. Afzal-Khan will read from Lahore with Love: Growing Up With Girlfriends Pakistani Style on Wednesday, March 14 from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm in the Red Room in the Student Services Building.
Dr. Afzal-Khan is Professor of English and Director of Women and Gender Studies at Montclair State University. The Chronicle of Higher Education published a story about the book and the heated politics of its reception.
Come hear distinguished scholar, activist, memoirist, poet , playwright and singer, Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan, read from and talk about her memoir. It is a living history of Pakistan from the unique perspective of a modern Muslim woman.
How to Celebrate World Read Aloud Day on Campus
Today, March 7th, is World Read Aloud Day! If you’re looking for a way to embrace or promote reading, there are many activities happening on Campus this week– as part of Read Aloud Day or independent of it– that will get your intellectual juices flowing.
1. Student Services is leading a trip of volunteers to read to kids at Open Door in Port Chester (today!)
2. Poetry Slam at the STOOD (March 6th, 9pm)
3. Lecture by Vivian Gornick, “On Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life.” Talk and book-signing at the Neuberger, sponsored by the Writers Center. (March 8th, 4pm)
Only 5 days left to take the 2012 Library Survey!
This Friday, March 9th is the LAST DAY for students, faculty & staff to take the 2012 Library Survey.
There’s only 5 days left to have your voice heard..and enter to win a Kindle Fire!
Library Survey 2012
Your feedback on this survey is crucial to helping the Library make useful and important improvements in the coming year. Suggestions on past surveys have led directly better seating, better lighting, vending machines, quiet zones, longer hours and more.
Just take this anonymous survey and register with your email to win prizes. Don’t worry, your email address will not be connected to your responses. Only Purchase College students are eligible to win prizes; but we love to hear from faculty and staff too!
Prizes include:
- One Kindle Fire
- Four $25.00 Dining Dollar “certificates”
- Four $25.00 MORE Dollar “certificates”
- One $75.00 Gift Certificate to China White Restaurant
- Two $50.00 Gift Certificates to Full Moon Trattoria
- Two $25.00 Gift Certificates to the Purchase Deli
- Two $25.00 Gift Certificates to the Cobblestone Restaurant
- Purchase College Gear from the campus bookstore
