Honoring MLK

Continue the holiday by stopping by the library to check out our display Martin Luther King, Jr. and the African-American Religious Tradition! The photos are on loan from the Nashville Public Library and there are several great, informative, inspiring (insert adjective of choice here) books on the topic just waiting to go home with you!

DVDs and CDs @ Your Library

The library just got a whole lot hipper. Driven by the need to provide CEMB students with the opportunity to study current, popular materials, and at the request of Professor Don Cusic, the library has purchased several contemporary DVDs and CDs. These items will be available to all Belmont Students, Faculty and Staff for one week at a time and can be found right next to the popular books near the reference area of the library. Faculty members interested in putting any of these items on reserve should act quickly! Stop by and pick out a few (limit of 5) DVDs and CDs to enjoy in the comfort of your own place.

Quiet, please!

We received a few complaints about noise last semester. We’re glad groups choose to work in the library and do dramatic readings of sociology textbooks, but we also want to accommodate individuals who need some peace and quiet to get their reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic done. We have designated the lower level as a quiet study area. This means no phone, no talking, no repetitive pen/shoe/keyboard noise, no mp3player so loud that anyone else can hear it, etc.

Questions? scottr@mail.belmont.edu

BUid in the house!

You’re probably tired of hearing about it. But here is the rundown on how it will impact your use of the library.

We too have to purge all SSN’s from our database. This means that when you need to login to “Your library record” to renew books you will have to enter your BUid.


We don’t expect you to memorize this number! You can get a sticker for your ID or you can login in BIC and look for the BUid in the upper right corner under MyBIC Preferences.

Best of 2007: Fun Library Literature

Sound like an oxymoron? Here are some librarian recommendations for informative and fun library and information reads from 2007:

Judy:

I recommend the book Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. It’s an interesting take on the organization of information, putting it into the larger context of organization of knowledge in today’s world. Weinberger illustrates the limits of the traditional organization of knowledge in physical space, and demonstrates quite comprehensibly the vast array of options for individual preference of organization in the digital environment. In physical space, a library, for example, a particular book can be housed in only one place, even if it deals with more than one subject. A decision must be made as to how to label it, and where to place it on the shelf. In the digital world, however, information can have as many labels as people think to give it, and can be retrieved in an infinite number of ways. Required reading for Luddites!

Courtney:

My favorite Firefox extensions from Lauren’s Library Blog
If you’re new to Firefox and don’t know about extensions, this is a good place to find some handy ones. (Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox, from a simple toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow you to customize Firefox to fit your own needs and preferences.) If you use Firefox and want to use it even more effectively or if you’re always looking for new extensions, this is a great place to find some of the best extensions.

Rachel:

In the essay “Shelf Life” (St. Louis Magazine, December 2007), novelist, essayist, and professor of philosophy William H. Gass writes about growing up with and living in a library. Beautifully written, the essay details a life-long love of library book sales, ideas, and “book dipping.”

One article, “Hipper Crowd of Shushers” by Kara Jesella (New York Times, 7/8/2007), generated a lot of talk in the wider world. This light-hearted piece portrayed the new generation of librarians as hipsters and bleeding hearts. While it won’t eradicate the stereotype of librarian as shusher, the article certainly didn’t damage our street cred.