Hi all,
The library has created a brand new portal for all the library blogs–including your favorite blog, New World of Resources! Here is the new link, http://blogs.lib.uconn.edu/newworldresources/
Update your bookmarks and wait for the next exciting blog entry.
Cordially, your librarian, Marisol Ramos
Marisol Ramos, M.A., M.L.I.S. Librarian for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Latino Studies, Spanish, and Anthropology, & Curator of the Latin American and Caribbean CollectionsFiled under Uncategorized
Hi all,
I just learned that the library created a Research Guide on E-Books Platforms, which give information about all the different e-books platforms available from the library.
http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/ebookplatforms
The guide also links to other guides such as the E-Resource Trials which are electronic products that we are testing for future purchases.
It is a lot of information but I hope it will help clarify some of the questions about why some ebooks are better than other (easy to read, or easy to access—single user vs. multiple users, or available for reserve or not)
Also, here is an article about PDA (Patron Driven Acquisition), for those that have asked me about what this is, and what should be the role of faculty in this new approach to acquisition. In a nutshell, it is recommended that faculty engaged the library on ebooks issues to make sure that we are serving you properly.
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/02/08/the-facultys-role-in-patron-driven-acquisitions/
If you would like a workshop on eBooks and how to use them for your classes, please let me know and I can see if we can arrange something with the Reserve staff to do so.
Marisol Ramos, M.A., M.L.I.S. Librarian for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Latino Studies, Spanish, and Anthropology, & Curator of the Latin American and Caribbean CollectionsFiled under Books Acquisitions, Digital Collections, Library news
Hi all,
It has been quite a while since my last post which show you how busy we all have been this semester. I blame the election, Sandy and the snowstorm. But, now that we are winding down to the end of the semester and getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought it was time to add something new to the blog.
Today’s topic is about ebooks. The library has been very busy acquiring and making available ebooks in our collection. But as you can imaging the amount of ebooks is huge and a little of challenge to find them. So I will try to share some good trick to increase your chances to find relevant books for your research and classes.
One thing that the Social Sciences Team at the library did a couple of years ago was to create this research guide, eReference Books in the Social Sciences. This guide offers a selection of e-books in all major social sciences disciplines of reference materials (encyclopedias, handbooks and dictionaries). This is an excellent starting point for your undergraduate students when beginning their research in social sciences.
But, if you are looking for research level ebooks in Latino/a, Latin American & Caribbean Studies the best way to do it is using the HOMER catalog. The advantage of using HOMER is that is very easy to limit your search to see only e-books.
How to search for ebooks using HOMER. Use the “Limit to:” Drop down menu select e-books. Then search using the Keyword option.
As always, use different keywords to maximize the results for your research area. For example:
At this point the majority of the books are in English with a small representation in other languages including Spanish. It is our hope that more e-books will be available in the future, but until then, please explore what we have in our holdings.
One final note. If you are interested in using any of these e-books for your classes, please contact Jo An Reynolds at reserveservices@libuconn.edu to verify that the ebook that you want to use can be added as Reserve through HuskyCT. Depending of vendors and publishers there may be restriction on access.
Happy exploring!
Marisol Ramos, M.A., M.L.I.S. Librarian for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Latino Studies, Spanish, and Anthropology, & Curator of the Latin American and Caribbean CollectionsFiled under Library news
Dear all,
Sorry that I haven’t been too active with my blog postings this semester. As you may have experienced already this semester seemed to be very busy and full of many news things.
One of the things I have not done yet this semester is my listing of new purchases in English and Spanish. I probably will re-start those listings the first week of October. Regarding suggestions for purchases, please send me your requests at http://www.lib.uconn.edu/services/RequestForPurchase/ for materials that you think we should have in the library. If you need books or videos for your classes, it is easier and faster to request such materials through Course Reserve, which you can do through your HuskyCT account.
Regarding library instruction classes, if you haven’t done it yet, please contact me if you want me to instruct your students on how to use our library resources, or how to cite properly, etc…
One thing I wanted to remind you is that the library started this year a new research skills workshop series for graduate students or prospective graduate students on things like how to do literature reviews, do business research, using US Census data for social science research, etc… To see all our offerings for this semester check this website, http://lib.uconn.edu/instruction/workshop/
Finally, I wanted to share with your some cool online resources that I have founded or were recommended to me by my colleagues which I think may be very useful for your research or classes:
Enjoy!
Marisol Ramos Librarian for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Latino Studies, Spanish & AnthropologyFiled under Digital Collections, Library news
Hi all,
Besides acquiring print books, the UConn Libraries is acquiring many ebooks that can be accessed through the HOMER catalog, or from the main page by searching the “Everything @ UConn” and the “Books and Media Worldwide” tabs’ search boxes. The two major distributors where we acquire books from are eBrary and EBL. They do have different interfaces and policies regarding printing pages or how many people can “check out” a digital copy. Sometimes only one person can view an ebook, sometimes multiple users can view an ebook. Offhand I can’t tell you which ebook follows one rule or the other rule–it really depends on the publisher, who decides what type of license is granting to the distributor. So feel free to explore these products and if you have problems or questions, do let me know. In addition, the links bellow my require you to use your netid and password before accessing the books. Finally, I do recommend that you create an account in both EBL and Ebrary (which are free) to keep track not only of what ebooks you are reading but also to save annotations you may want to do as you are reading them.
Here is a little sample of what we have acquired this academic year. eBooks purchases were based on faculty and students suggestions. Some books do have print counterparts but must don’t. If you prefer a print copy in the library, do let me know.
Cordially,
Marisol Ramos Librarian for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Latino Studies, Spanish & AnthropologyLatino/as, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies
Filed under Books Acquisitions, Digital Collections, Library news
Hello everyone!
It has been quite a busy semester so far with many changes at the library website with new Search Boxes. If you were wondering what it this all about here is short explanation of the new changes to our searching options.
New look at the UConn Libraries Website
The default search box is called Everything @ UConn which use a software called Summons which allow users to search almost everything physically at UConn libraries as well as UConn’s online resources (articles, e-books, streaming media, etc.). It is a good starting point for undergraduates trying to find materials for their projects. Second tab is called Books & Media Worldwide, which was previously called UConn Worldcat: This text box searches for physical items at UConn and other libraries. It is recommended for finding physical books, movies, scores, maps, etc., and for finding and requesting items through Interlibrary Loan. The next tab, Articles Worldwide, allow users to search only databases from the EBSCOHost platform or to use Google Scholar to search for articles in all our databases and worldwide in any language. Finally the tab Databases is a list of our databases organized by Subject and it is recommended by advance searchers that know which databases they want to use for their research.
We are testing how useful for users is this Everything @ UConn [Summons Search] search box so your feedback is greatly appreciated to improve this service to all our users. Please share your thoughts and concerns by clicking the Share your feedback! button.
In other news, mark your calendars for these two events (co-sponsored with the Center for Latin America and Caribbean Studies)
Now, here is a selection of our recent acquisitions for books in Latin American, Caribbean, Latinos Studies & Spanish in English languages and films in English and Spanish.
Films:
Summary: “With intimate access and striking imagery, Sin País (Without Country) explores one family’s experience as they are separated by deportation. Sam and Elida Mejia escaped a violent Civil War in Guatemala and came to California. After raising their family for nearly 20 years in the Bay Area, immigration agents stormed the Mejia’s house in 2007. After a passionate fight to stay in the U.S., Sam and Elida are deported back to Guatemala, and leave their two teenage ch[i]ldren in the U.S. This short documentary explores the complexities of the Mejia’s new reality: parents living without their children, and children doing their best to succeed without their parents.” — Container.
Summary: Documents the counterculture musical scene in Barcelona from Canet and Libertarian Days to Star, Comix, and the Trapera.
Summary: Orphaned siblings José Francisco and his sister Eulalia came to Rancho Grande to be watched over by their godmother Angela. So did the unfortunate Cruz, their late mother’s godchild, when she was orphaned as well. They grow up together with Felipe, the patron’s son, who becomes José Francisco’s best friend. Now Felipe has become the Patron, and has made José Francisco the manager. José Francisco is secretly in love with Cruz, but when Angela notices that Felipe likes Cruz as well, a series of misunderstandings put their friendship to the test. This signature film marks the beginning of a new and distinctly Mexican genre, the comedia ranchera, which continues to be exploited in Mexican cinema. The classical hacienda (ranch) setting and its folkloric, romanticized nostalgia struck a chord with the Mexican middle class in the 1930s, doing much to establish mariachi as a national musical form.
Summary: Caracremada (“Burnface” in Catalan), a nickname given by the Spanish Civil Guard to Ramon Vila Capdevila, reflects about the libertarian resistance against Franco’s regime through the last active guerrilla fighter. In 1951 the CNT ordered the retreat of its militants; however Ramon Vila remained in the woods of inland Catalonia where he restarted the fight operating on his own” –IMDb.
Summary: Shows the evolution and different Flamenco dances.
Summary: Story of the children sent to Russia for their safety by the anti-Franco Republicans during the Civil War.
Summary: Set in 2000, a director and his crew shoot a controversial film about Christopher Columbus in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while the local people rise up against plans to privatize the water supply.
Books:
Filed under Books Acquisitions, Films, Library news, Uncategorized
Hi all,
I have moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress in anticipation of the UConn Libraries acquisition of a WordPress server. That means that in the near future all the blogs created and maintained by librarians and other library staff are going to be in one central location. In the meantime, I transferred all posts I have done since 2007 to the present to this new interface and I hope you like it better than the old one.
In other library news, do you know about the several new services available from the Interlibrary Loan Department?
I think these are great new services, especially now that the winter is coming so enjoy!
Also, for those of you that use census data, the library is offering a workshop on how to use New American FactFinder at the end of the month.
This is a great workshop to attend, but there are two spaces left, so hurry up and register!
That is all for now. Enjoy the holidays, which are around the corner!
Happy Thanksgivings!
Marisol
Filed under Library news
