Black No More: Skin Bleaching

In a recent Facebook post, Humanities professor Dr. Karen Davis refers to the latest issue of the Journal of Pan African Studies (volume 4, number 4), which is devoted to skin bleaching. This issue is available for free here: http://www.jpanafrican.com/currentissue.htm. (The title of this blog post is taken from the title of one of the articles in this issue.)

Dr. Davis writes, "I've been compiling resources on global history and practices of skin bleaching for about a year now, starting with the Jamaican controversy over Buju Banton's song "Love Muh Brownin" in the 1990s, followed by Nando Ranks' anti-bleaching response, "Dem a Bleach," a hugely popular club song in the 1990s."

The resources that Dr. Davis has compiled are available upon request; they include videos, journal articles, song lyrics, books, images and websites on the practice of skin bleaching. For a copy of these resources, please contact librarian Christine Malmsten (313.927.1378 - cmalmsten@marygrove.edu) or Dr. Davis (313.927.1352 - kdavis@marygrove.edu).

"Very impressed by all of you in the library"

"Finally got a chance to read this first issue [of the Marygrove Library 'zine].  Very impressed by all of you in the library.  Please pass along to the others that I think you are all awesome!!!!  Keep up your good work and efforts to improve what Marygrove has to offer."

Sue
June 9, 2011

"She's awesome! Thanks for the help!"

"Andrea is a great assistant. She referred me to the resources necessary to ensure materials needed. She's awesome! Thanks for the help..."

A Marygrove student
June 27, 2011

Your librarians are in New Orleans...Want to know why?

We're presenting a poster session at the American Library Association's 2011 conference about our use of WordPress and Joomla to market the Marygrove College Library. Stay tuned for details! (But we'll leave you with this: jambalaya, gumbo, and po' boys are all made in heaven.)

Follow the conference on Twitter: #ala11

This post was updated June 30, 2011:

Library assistant Laura Manley (who's this close to finishing her library science master's degree and becoming a full-fledged librarian), along with fully-fledged librarian Christine Malmsten, had the privilege of presenting a poster session on marketing the Marygrove College Library this past weekend in New Orleans.

Their session was titled, "If You've Got It, Flaunt It! Marketing Your Academic Library with Wordpress." Laura and Christy described how they created an online magazine (a 'zine) to showcase the library's services, especially those that aren't well known. They also presented the results of a survey designed to figure out who's using library resources, who isn't, and why.

What frustrated them during this process? Having to switch 'zine software halfway through. They originally began designing the 'zine using OpenZine.com, but due to (un)usability issues and the fact that it's supported by advertising, they switched over to WordPress.com.

What delighted them about this process? Two things in particular: first, sharing experiences with other information professionals at the conference (including some international librarians); and second, the large number of students, staff and faculty who took the survey. These members of the Marygrove community sent a flood of positive feedback. Sample comments: 

• "The library staff is very warm and welcoming" 
• "I have found the all of the Library staff to be very personable and knowledgable"  
• "I do find the reading room a great place to study with my laptop, so if I have a block of time, I will head that way"
• "I enjoy spending time in the library, it takes me away from the stressful vibe of the academic setting. I meet up with friends and we discuss upcoming assignments and use the computers. It is a necessity on campus"
• (and our personal favorite) "I love the library"

More details about Laura & Christy's presentation as well as full survey data are available upon request. You can reach Christine Malmsten at 313.927.1378 or cmalmsten@marygrove.edu. You can reach Laura Manley at 313.927.1540 or lmanley3312@marygrove.edu

March 2011 report from the Association of American University Presses

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) published a report in March titled, "Sustaining Scholarly Publishing: New Economic Models for University Presses." From the AAUP website:

This report a) identifies elements of the current scholarly publishing systems that are worth protecting and retaining throughout this and future periods of transition; b) explores business models of existing projects which hold promise; c) outlines the characteristics of effective business models; d) addresses the challenges of the transitional period we are entering; and e) arrives at recommendations that might allow us to sustain high-quality scholarship at a time when the fundamental expectations of publishing are changing.

You can read the full text of the report here (PDF).

The authors make five recommendations:

1. Prevent wasteful duplication of effort and ensure that significant developments are not lost in the clutter.
2. Existing partnerships should be supported and the development of new ones encouraged.
3. The role of agencies outside the presses in providing funds to work toward the digital future has  been, and will continue to be, crucial.
4. The trend toward more open access publishing is clear; but it will not succeed unless sustainable business models can be developed to support it. Nonprofit publishers, especially university presses, should become fully engaged in this discussion with the support of their parent institutions.
5. Proposals and plans for new business models should explicitly address two issues: the potential impact of the new model on existing parts of the press’s program and the requirements, both operational and financial, for making the transition to the new model. Ideally the consideration of these issues would involve the relevant author community as well as the press, its partners such as libraries or societies, and the funding agency.

Open (and free and scholarly) resources - thx to eCornucopia conference

On Thursday, May 26, one of your Marygrove College librarians attended e-Cornucopia Conference 2011. She participated online from Marygrove's campus, and at least one other Marygrover was on site at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan: Dr. Teddi Williams of the BUS/CIS department.

The theme of this year's conference was the Open Digital University. From the conference homepage,

Open Education is a current theory that knowledge should be transparent and accessible to anyone who wants to learn. Technology and the Internet have increased the global community's access to knowledge. The hope is that openness will help create a more democratic and equitable global society, as our information networks dissolve traditional geographic and cultural boundaries. Benefits, however, must be weighed against possible complications. The public nature of this work can lead to privacy and security abuses, global communication might have to contend with local law, and democratic organizations, although they may lack the built-in abuses of hierarchies, can lead to chaos and inefficiency. This conference will examine specific examples about how openness is implemented in higher education and the resulting successes and problems. The three tracks will be about open education, open access (journals), and open source (computer code).

Open (and free and scholarly) resources abound on the internet. For your reading and scholarly pleasure, here are a few of those resources offered by the University of Michigan, which was represented at e-Cornucopia by presenters Emily Pucket Rodgers ("Open, Share, Learn: The University of Michigan's Open Educational Resources"), Alissa Centivany ("Rethinking the Relationship between Copyright, Open Access, and Scholarly Publishing"), Greg Grossmeier ("Open Research Data), and Bobby Glushko ("Empowering Access through Understanding Copyright").

• Open.Michigan is a University of Michigan initiative dedicated to creating and sharing knowledge resources and research created at U-M with the global learning community: http://open.umich.edu/
• Search open content repositories to find content that is licensed for sharing: https://open.umich.edu/wiki/Open_Content_Search
• Create your own open content (PDF): http://open.umich.edu/sites/default/files/open.content.howto-infosheet.pdf

Gale databases unavailable 12 am-12 pm on Saturday, June 4

Gale will be performing infrastructure maintenance during a twelve hour period on Saturday, June 4, 2011. The window will take place from 12 am to 12 pm. During this time, all Gale products and services will be unavailable, including:

• Academic OneFile
• Agriculture Collection
• Biography & Genealogy Master Index
• Books & Authors
• Business & Company ASAP
• Business & Company Resource Center
• Chilton Online Auto Repair
• Communications & Mass Media Collection
• Computer Database
• Criminal Justice Collection
• Culinary Arts Collection
• Diversity Studies Collection
• Educator's Reference Complete
• Environmental Studies & Policy Collection
• Expanded Academic ASAP
• Fine Arts & Music Collection
• Gardening, Landscape & Horticulture Collection
• Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Issues Collection
• General Business File ASAP
• General OneFile
• General Reference Center Gold
• General Science Collection
• Health & Wellness Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Home Improvement Collection
• Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Collection
• Information Science & Library Issues Collection
• Informe
• Insurance & Liability Collection
• Junior Edition
• Kids InfoBits
• LegalTrac
• Literature Resource Center
• Military & Intelligence Database
• Newsstand
• New York Times
• Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Collection
• Pop Culture Collection
• Psychology Collection
• Religion & Philosophy Collection
• Small Business Collection
• Student Edition
• U.S. History Collection
• Virtual Reference Library
• War & Terrorism Collection
• World History Collection

Use MeLCat to request materials from 400+ libraries (video)

MelCat is a state-wide library catalog that lets you find and request materials from over 400 Michigan libraries, and have them delivered to your home library. Jeff Zachwieja, a librarian at Oakland Community College and a former Marygrover, has put together a video demonstrating how to use MeLCat. Take a look and - as always - let us know if you have any questions: 313.927.1346.

No surprise - Andrea helps us maintain our standard of excellence

A comment we received today:

"I am a faculty member @ Wayne State University and needed to find a book that our library does not carry. Andrea Hanserd was extremely helpful. She pointed me in the right direction and helped me make copies. This kind of service is not often found in most libraries. You are smart to have her. Thank you. Dr. Monica White"

Good going, Andrea!

New open access publication from SAGE

We just learned about a new open access publication from the SAGE publishing company, called SAGE Open.

"SAGE Open publishes peer-reviewed, original research and review articles in an interactive, open-access format. With more than 400 manuscripts already submitted since January 1, 2011, articles span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities." Learn more.

We're excited to see the publishing world making a greater commitment to open access, and hope to see the trend continue. Open access refers to free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals (www.doaj.org/). It's an especially important way to disseminate scholarly information, as fewer library budgets are able to cope with escalating journal costs.

Here's a sampling of articles from the first issue of SAGE Open:

• A Transformative Collegiate Discourse by Evan Ortlieb
• Lars and the Real Girl: Lifelike Positive Transcendence by Ted Remington
• Fostering Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research in Adult Education: Interactive Resource Guides and Tools by  Elizabeth Anne Erichsen and Cheryl Goldenstein
• Intangible Heritage of Standard English Learners: The “Invisible” Subgroup in the United States of America? Implications for Closing the Achievement Gap by Ogo Okoye-Johnson
• Designing for Explanation in Health Care Applications of Expert Systems by Keith W. Darlington
• Personal Meaning Orientations and Psychosocial Adaptation in Older Adults by Gary T. Reker and Louis C. Woo

Happy reading!

Intersession hours: by appointment only

From May 1 - 15, 2011, the Library will be closed except by appointment.

Marygrove students, faculty and staff: if, for academic or college-related purposes, you need either physical access to the Library or assistance using Library resources remotely, you can leave a voicemail or email us, and a Library staff member will contact you to set up an in-person or telephone appointment.

Reference desk: 313.927.1346
Circulation desk: 313.927.1355
STIC: 313.927.1582
Email: lib@marygrove.edu

Normal hours and services to guests will resume on May 16, 2011.

Free access to 41 online encyclopedias until April 23

The following encyclopedias and handbooks from Sage Reference Online are available until April 23, 2011. To begin exploring, visit http://www.sage-ereference.com/Login.html and login with username librarian and password sagereference. If you feel that any of these would make a valuable addition to the Marygrove Library, please let us know by calling 313.927.1346.

21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook
Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory
The Sage Handbook of Criminological Theory
(*we own this in print) Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies
Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief
21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook
The Sage Handbook of Philosophy of Education
(*we own this in print) Encyclopedia of Educational Reform and Dissent
(*we own this in print) Encyclopedia of Family Health
(*we own this in print) Gender and Women's Leadership: A Reference Handbook
Encyclopedia of Geography
The Sage Handbook of Governance
Green Business: An A-to-Z Guide
Green Cities: An A-to-Z Guide
Green Consumerism: An A-to-Z Guide
Green Energy: An A-to-Z Guide
Green Food: An A-to-Z Guide
Green Politics: An A-to-Z Guide
The Sage Handbook of Health Care Ethics: Core and Emerging Issues
The Sage Handbook of Identities
(*we own this in print) Encyclopedia of Identity
The Sage Handbook of Islamic Studies
Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: A Reference Handbook
Handbook of Marketing Scales, Third Edition
The SAGE Handbook of Mental health and Illness
Encyclopedia of Motherhood
Handbook of Multicultural Measures
Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Society
Political and Civic Leadership
21st Century Political Science: A Reference Handbook
Encyclopedia of Political Theory
Encyclopedia of Power
The Sage Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination
Encyclopedia of Research Design
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication
(*we own this in print) The Sage Handbook of Social Gerontology
Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media
The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics
Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention
Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World
The Sage Handbook of Workplace Learning

Library offerings are newly enhanced by Directory of Open Access Journals

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) has just been integrated into the Marygrove College Library website. This means that as you search library databases, you now have access to 6395 more journals and 551,008 more articles across all disciplines.

The DOAJ provides access to free, peer-reviewed, open access journals. Not only will these journals now appear in your library database search results, but you can also visit the DOAJ directly from this library webpage (scroll down to the D's): http://research.marygrove.edu/articles-a-databases/search-for-articles.

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to call the library at 313.927.1346.

July 28, 2011 update. We've also added these open access databases: BioMed Central, Public Library of Science, and the World Bank Data Catalog. Happy searching!

Explore AP Images & several Encyclopaedia Britannica databases for a limited time

You're invited to explore the following free resources for a limited time. Once you've done some exploring, we'd love to hear what you think. Would any of these make valuable additions to the Marygrove College Library?

• AP Images: available until April 30, 2011. Username is mclslibrary, password is mclslibrary. AP Images is a research database that provides a sensory journey of photographs, audio sound bites, graphics, and full text spanning over 180 years of history as seen through the eyes of the Associated Press

• Encyclopaedia Britannica databases: available until June 30, 2011. Username is mclspreview, password is spring11.
• 21st-Century Explorer
• Annals of American History Online
• Britannica Learning Zone
• Britannica Online Academic Edition 
• Britannica Online Public Library Edition
• Britannica Online School Edition
• Global Reference Center
• Image Quest
• Original Sources from Encyclopaedia Britannica 
• Student News Net
• Spanish Reference Center
• Webster’s Third New International Dictionary Unabridged Online
• World Data Analyst Online

If you feel that any of these would make a valuable addition to the Marygrove Library, please email Christy at cmalmsten@marygrove.edu or call her at 313.927.1378.

Library assistant is winner of 2011 Amy S. McCombs/Frederick P. Currier Writing Award

Library assistant Theresas Spiteri is one of the 5 winners of the 2011 Amy S. McCombs/Frederick P. Currier Writing Award. The other winners are Mia Balbin-Cuesta, Percy Pierce, Emily Sese, and Della Young. Congratulations!

This award is held in conjunction with the Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series, which will take place Friday, April 15, in Alumnae Hall, and feature the poet and literary scholar Harryette Mullen.

Read more about this award, the lecture series, and Harryette Mullen here: http://www.marygrove.edu/home/news/press-releases/1025-amy-s-mccombs-frederick-p-currier-writing-award-winners-announced.html

The latest news in the Google Books settlement

Via the Association of College & Research Libraries:

"The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) has released  "A Guide for the Perplexed Part IV: The Rejection of the Google Books Settlement," an analysis of the latest decision in the Google Books Search case and its potential effect on libraries. The LCA is comprised of ALA, ACRL, and  the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

This guide is the latest in a series prepared by LCA legal counsel Jonathan Band to help inform the library community about this landmark legal dispute.  In the Guide Part IV, Band explains why the Court rejected the proposed class action settlement, which would have allowed Google to engage in a wide variety of activities using scanned books.

Past guides and other LCA materials related to the case are available on the LCA website."

Avoid the New York Times paywall

On March 25, 2011, The New York Times implemented its paywall. Now anyone who views more than 20 articles per month at http://www.nytimes.com will be charged a fee. Individual subscribers to the print newspaper have unlimited access to the website. The Marygrove College Library and other libraries are working with the Times to provide similar unlimited access via our institutional subscription.

In the meantime, there are several well-documented loopholes around the paywall. You can also continue to read the print version of the Times in the library, or access the Times online from 1980 to the present via several of the library's databases (this requires a Marygrove login).

If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to get in touch with one of your librarians (313.927.1346) or leave a comment below.

Changes to five OCLC FirstSearch databases

As of December 2010, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index is no longer available via the Marygrove College Library.

Beginning June 30, 2011, the following databases will also become unavailable:

• ABI/Inform
• Biology Digest
• Dissertation Abstracts
• GEOBASE

All five databases are (or were) offered via the OCLC FirstSearch service. OCLC has decided to drop certain databases in order to focus on providing other services. You can read more about its plan here:

http://www.oclc.org/ca/en/firstsearch/content/questions/default.htm

The library subscribes to a wealth of other resources designed to meet your research needs, but if you feel that Arts & Humanities, ABI/Inform, Biology Digest, Dissertation Abstracts, or GEOBASE are essential to your work, please don't hesitate to call your librarian Christy at 313.927.1378.

Our eBooks will soon look different - but content remains the same

The Marygrove College Library gives you access to more than 25,000 electronic books, offering you another convenient way to do research from both on- and off-campus.

Soon you'll notice that these ebooks look slightly different from what you're used to. Their content won't change, but their interface will. This includes the colors on your screen, and the location of links and tools for turning pages and searching content. At the same time, the name that we give this collection of ebooks will change from "NetLibrary eBooks" to "eBooks on EBSCOhost."

These changes won't go into effect until July, but you can preview them now. Be sure to let us know what you think by calling your librarian Christy at 313.927.1378.

Help protect Michigan libraries

Michigan libraries are in danger due to new proposed budget cuts at the state level. Read more about what's at stake, and learn how to join the fight to protect these invaluable resources:

http://www.milibrariesforthefuture.org/

Please add your voice to the conversation. "The future of Michigan depends on it."