Getting Started on Deaf Research: Part 3

Argh ...

It's a unique sort of book that can simultaneously frustrate you beyond all belief and draw you in even deeper. Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is one of those books, and it's driving me nuts at the moment.

On the surface, it's a deeply complicated book -- at least four major plots (one of which includes you. Yes, you, the poor soul reading it), the beginnings of ten engrossing novels, and at least one secret society out to steal the source of all stories. Throughout it all, Calvino meditates on the nature of literature, the act of reading, and the way both interact within the reader's mind.

Below the surface, it's irritating. Each of the ten novels in the book starts off a little slowly, then builds up terrifically well all the way to a particularly suspenseful point -- and then is chopped off. Of course, all of this is in service to the overall plot, which centers around two readers who are having the same problem you are: Getting suckered into a particularly good book only to have it cut off at a particularly critical moment for one reason or another. Gah.

I'm sure by the book's end, I'll rave about it, but at the moment, I just want to know what happens next.

Okay, moving on. First, I'd like to announce that it's once again time for our Undergraduate Research Paper Award. If you're an undergrad who's written what you feel is an especially good research paper at any point since the beginning of Spring 2009, send it to us. If you win, you get a $200 Barnes & Noble gift card, which is a prize I'd envy under any circumstance. You can find more details, including our submission criteria and instructions, here. If you're a faculty member reading this, by all means, please feel free to encourage the authors of the best papers you've seen to submit their work!

Now, let's get back on track with deaf research. I believe we left off with our pathfinders, a list of which you can find here.

The pathfinders are intended to be quick stops for people who are researching fairly common topics, such as cochlear implants, deaf authors, and interpreting. One thing to bear in mind about those pathfinders -- and this one thing is mentioned in most of them -- is that they don't often list the titles we have in those topics. They're intended to give you suggestions and methods for performing the research yourself. It sounds funny, but that's one of the most important things we try to do here at the Library: teach our students how to perform effective research on their own. It's an important skill to have, and these pathfinders are designed to encourage its development.

They're all laid out in a fairly standard format for most of the pathfinders (exceptions are discussed a little further down):

• Scope
• This discusses exactly what the pathfinder covers. This generally includes a more specific definition of the topic covered (What exactly is covered in the term "Deaf culture?" How exactly does a cochlear implant work?) and gives you a better idea of what sort of information the pathfinder can help you dig up.
  
• Introduction
  
• Lists resources that offer introductions to the topic. For example, in the pathfinder about cochlear implants, this section details various texts that may offer useful introductions to cochlear implants and their importance in the deaf community, and points to the websites of some manufacturers.
  
• Books
• Again, we don't often list specific items. If we were to try to offer a listing of specific books, we'd spend quite a bit of time adding new books as they come in. It would also not be a very good fit for the purpose of the pathfinder, which is, again, intended to guide you along your own course of research. Instead, we offer suggested search terms and instructions on how to access the catalog.
  
• Periodicals
• Similar to the "Books" section. We also include a discussion of how to approach searching for deaf-related topics in non-deaf-related periodicals; many deaf-related issues are covered in journals that don't have the word "deaf" or "sign" in the title.
  
• Online Databases/Newspapers/Other Resources
• A particular pathfinder may have anywhere from one to all three of these sections. We generally include suggestions for the best places to look and search terms that will work best in finding what you need.

That's more or less standard, with some variation to accommodate films and microforms. Very few pathfinders don't follow this format; those non-standard pathfinders are concerned mostly with Gallaudet's more unique holdings, like our deaf school yearbooks, which aren't available online. Our yearbooks pathfinder, for example, describes how to search for a specific school's yearbook in our catalog.

In general, the pathfinders are terrific sources for step-by-step help in looking up some of the more common deaf-related topics. If you're looking for something that isn't covered by the pathfinders, you always have at least one more thing you can do: ask a librarian!

That takes care of this week. I'm out of town for the Academic Bowl again next week, so you can expect a shorter post a lá last week's. Enjoy the emerging grass and blue skies! After this week's 30-mile-per-hour winds, of course.

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Question of the Week
When are we getting more new books?
We're getting them right now. Carts have been arriving at least once a week for the past few weeks. I'll write up a post about our new books sometime soon!

Three feet of snow: now what?

Phew.

All this snow. It makes me wonder why I left Rochester at all. Of course, I spent a couple of years in Florida after I graduated from RIT, so that makes sense -- except now, of course, I find myself up here, buried under three feet of snow.

As I'm sure you may have noticed, the recent snowstorms have thrown off the blog schedule a little bit. Add on to that my work with the Academic Bowl, and you've got a strange schedule simmering away. This week gets a Wednesday post, since I'm in Utah starting Thursday, but next week will get a post on Friday.

Since things have gone a little askew, I'm going to put the remainder of the Deaf Research Help series on hold until next week; we're all still playing catch-up after a week off, and it's beyond me to try and focus on such involved stuff at the moment while I've got a few other things going.

Instead, we'll do a quick post, starting with a book review and then an update on the Library in the wake of last week's snowstorms. Sort of a half-post for a half-week.

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I actually checked this book out for a re-read after hearing about Salinger's death a few weeks ago; it's one of my favorite books. It's basically the story of the Glass family, which consists of a pair of parents and a whole passel of overachieving kids who sequentially rose to fame on a radio show by being on a panel of smart-aleck children who answer questions posed to them by callers. Of course, by the time in which the novel is set, the kids have all grown up, complete with a war death (the Second World War) and a suicide; the surviving Glasses are left to cope with the attendant psychological problems that arise when child geniuses grow up.

Specifically, the two youngest Glass kids, now in their twenties, are the main characters in the book. Franny's the baby -- and beauty -- of the family, who's just experienced a nervous breakdown for reasons not fully explained in the novel (although they are very strongly implied), while Zooey is her older brother, a good-looking aspiring actor with a major chip on his shoulder. The majority of the novel concerns a long conversation between the two as Franny convalesces on their mother's couch about the frustration they experience while approaching a world that is often more senseless than they expect it to be. Really, both Franny and Zooey are more thoughtful versions of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye; they're more likely to attempt to come to terms with the world as it is, rather than hold a grudge against it for its refusal to conform to their standards.

It's a fantastic book and, if I may be so bold, superior to Catcher in the Rye in many ways.

Now: What happened to the Library in the middle of all that snow?

Believe it or not, while Gallaudet as a whole was closed, we stayed open! This is because our student assistants, most of whom live on campus, went way above and beyond; they came in, they opened the building, they checked out books and movies, checked them in, and generally held the fort and offered our most basic services until we librarians could come back to campus. Major kudos to them!

However, for one reason or another, people may have gotten e-mails saying their items were overdue during last week, but were unable to make it onto campus because of unplowed roads, buried cars, or just plain old snow-laden ennui (maybe not that last one). This is kind of annoying, because folks who checked out any movies on the first day of the first storm, Feb. 4, were unable to come in on or before Feb. 7 to return their movies. Then, after a couple days of digging out, the next storm hit!

Don't worry, though: We're waiving any fines for items that you couldn't drop off last week because of the weather! If you've still got any of those, bring them in this week and you'll get off scot-free. This only applies to items that were due on or after Feb. 4 and before Feb. 14.

Aside from that, as I said, we're all playing catch-up, along with the rest of Gallaudet, but we're definitely open for business.

That's all for this week. Next week: Deaf research pathfinders!

Getting Started on Deaf Research: Part 2

So far, this week, I'm in the middle of Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond, the guy who wrote Guns, germs, and steel, which got everyone's attention a few years ago. Collapse is a pretty interesting book -- it takes examples of different societies throughout history, including modern-day Montana, and examines the various factors that lead to social collapse. He looks at problems like environmental degradation, hostile incursions from unfriendly neighbors, and the collapse of friendly neighbors, among other things, and examines how they affect the society under study.

Bear in mind, it's not gloom-and-doom stuff; the author isn't saying we're headed for the end of the U.S. or anything bestselling like that. His larger point seems to be that although we do have several very serious challenges ahead of us, we also have several very large advantages over past societies that failed. Chief among those advantages is sheer hindsight; no other culture in history has accumulated such a large amount of historical information in a form that can be so easily examined. Diamond seeks to exploit this advantage to our benefit by scrutinizing past societies -- such as those of East Polynesia (including Easter and the Pitcairn Islands) -- and essentially determining which factors caused their collapse and how this happened.

It's fascinating reading, and although the general subject matter is depressing (deforestation, extinction, cannibalism, etc.), his writing is so engaging that you forget about all of that and focus on the conclusions being drawn here. It won't be available for you to check out for a while, though -- I'm jealously keeping it until I'm done with it, although, like a good Library patron, I'll get it back before the due date!

So last week, we covered the Guide to Deaf Biographies (the title really should be italicized -- the Guide -- but, heck, we're all friends here, aren't we?). This week, we'll take a look at the FAQs available through the Deaf Research Help section of our Web site.

The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page seeks to provide quick answers to common questions about deaf-related subjects. We've split the questions up into eight rough categories:

• Cultural, Social, Medical
• For questions about Crab Theory, audism, causes of physiological deafness, history of visual applause
• Films
• Gallaudet University facts
• Various deaf-related facts
• For questions about deaf animals, places named after deaf people, sports-related queries, Kendall Motor Oil Company, the Lincoln Memorial
• Deaf people
• Individuals like Laurent Clerc and Helen Keller are covered here (including quotes), as well as deaf Nobel Prize winners, among other things
• Deaf publications
• Little Paper Family and vendors/publishers of deaf-related materials
• General questions about sign language
• Popular songs, poems, and prayers in ASL, as well as some questions about ASL itself
• Statistics on deafness
• Retired librarian Tom Harrington created a very thoughtful treatise on statistical treatment of the deaf population. It's a good read!

Actually, in general, the entire list of FAQs is a good place to spend a little time. They're intended mostly to answer common questions that arise from all over the world, and occasionally here at Gallaudet University as well. They are fairly comprehensive and well-researched; still, the best methods for obtaining a full and complete answer continue to be 1) checking to see if there is any more current information, and 2) asking a librarian for help. The second one isn't quite as necessary as far as the FAQs are concerned, though -- they really are a good place to look for information or just for fun. For instance, did you know that cats with all-white coats and blue eyes are the most likely to be deaf? Not only that, but some cats have one blue eye and one eye that's a different color -- and it'll be deaf in the ear on the same side of the head as the blue eye!

That's it for this week. Next week, I'll be in Oklahoma for the Midwest regional competition for the Academic Bowl. Since this will occupy half my week, there won't be a blog post next week. When we do return the following week, though, we'll discuss the research guides that are available.

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Question of the Day
I noticed that the couches on the first floor, facing Kendall Green by the Deaf Stacks, seem to be in an area that's pretty dark. It's hard to read anything there. Can you install some lights or something?
You picked a good week to ask this question! We just installed four fluorescent lights above that area to brighten it up a little bit. It should be much easier to read and do schoolwork over there now. Please don't be shy to let us know your unalloyed opinion -- we're always glad to hear what you think!

Getting Started on Deaf Research: Part 1

So we survived the first week of Spring 2010! The first week of a semester is always pretty interesting, mostly because of the sheer number of things that can go wrong and the sheer number of things that can come up that have never come up before.

Adding to the interest of this week was The Futurist by James Othmer. It's a sort of funny novel about a guy who makes a living as a "futurist" -- basically someone who makes predictions on the next hot trend. If you've ever seen a video from TED or CES about "what's next" in terms of technological trends, you've seen a futurist talking. They make a lot of money giving talks to various conferences and corporate retreats, and so does the protagonist, who finds himself in Johannesburg, South Africa, about to give a presentation to a massive gathering of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, his girlfriend breaks up with him while he's on the plane to Johannesburg, so when he lands, he's begun to question what it's all about.

This leads to a keynote speech that is nothing like what anyone expected from him, which in turn leads to his involvement with a shady cabal of American corporate/military/governmental interests. They hire him to travel the world and eavesdrop on conversations about the United States, to sort of place his finger on the pulse of what the world thinks of America, and figure out ways to exploit it. There are a lot of complicated misadventures along the way, including encounters with an obsessive fan of Nostradamus, a version of Bill Gates who's holed up in Greenland so he can watch the ice break up, and a gay male model spy in the mold of Zoolander. However, when our main character decides to go off the reservation for a little while, things take a surprisingly nasty turn. It's somewhat thought-provoking, but is mostly a fun, escapist read. Quick, too -- finished it in two days.

Today, we'll keep it brief and just talk a little bit about the Deaf Research Help page on our Web site. Consider it a quick summary of what's available. I figured this would be helpful, because there really is a large amount of information in that part of the site alone.

For this week, I'm going to focus on one of the first links you will probably notice on the Deaf Research Help: Information about famous deaf people. This link will take you to a page that describes the Gallaudet University Library Guide to Deaf Biographies.

This is a fairly comprehensive database; it lists nearly every deaf person who's been mentioned in several different types of sources, from single-person biographies to newspaper clippings. It includes whatever biographical information can be gleaned from the source material, and cites the source. Once you see a source you'd like to see more of, you can scroll up to the top of the record, look for the "Sources" link, and click on it. In the list that comes up, look for the one you want, listed alphabetically by title. Once you find it, you'll also see the location (like "Deaf Stacks") and call number. For additional information not listed in the Guide, you can always look up the person's name in ALADIN Discovery and see if we hold anything else on him or her. It's a fantastic way to get a start on researching a particularly obscure deaf individual.

The Guide offers a few different ways to find information about famous deaf people.

First, you are able to browse by name, which will bring up a list of all the names in the database, alphabetized by last name. It's useful if you want to see if there's information about a particular family (such as the Gallaudet family) and on how many members. It's also helpful if you aren't sure you spelled your subject's name correctly, which happens to me often.

It's also possible to find people based on their nationalities or ethnicities; if you want to find out about famous deaf Canadians, for example, or famous deaf Native Americans (who are categorized by tribe), this is a great way to go about it. One curious thing: "nonhuman" is included in the list of nationalities. I bet you want to find out what that's about now.

Last, but certainly not least, the database is browsable by occupation, which includes everything from deaf astronomers to deaf zoologists. This is a pretty interesting capability by itself, but as you look through the list, you'll see jobs like "wallpaper designer" and "accomplice to a murderer." With occupations like these, how can you resist finding out what the stories are behind them? Luckily, the Guide to Deaf Biographies is here for you.

This database was created and maintained by librarian Tom Harrington, who has since retired, so the caveat here is that it hasn't been updated recently. However, as long as the person you're looking for didn't pop up in the last couple of years, it's still very accurate and useful.

Next week, we'll focus on another resource available through Deaf Research Help: The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

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Question of the Week
I'm a student, and I've seen other students working at the Library. How do I get a job at the Library?
Check this page out. It'll tell you everything you need to know.

Once you've completed and turned in your application, as well as any associated papers, wait. If there's a job opening available and you're qualified for it, we'll contact you for an interview. If not, your application will go on file until the next opening comes up. Just be patient!

A brief refresher on Library use for the new semester

Have you ever seen a drunk man walk?

He staggers left and right, his path meandering along a course that almost seems random but nevertheless purposeful. He has an end goal, and his steps, no matter how stumblingly placed, get him there in the end. Eventually.

This idea underlies much of The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, which I finished recently. In spite of the rather picturesque phrase, though, the title actually refers to Brownian motion; this term describes the apparently random motion of particles in suspension in a solution, which are almost never at rest. They drift to and fro, and for a long time, it was one of the great mysteries of science, thought to be an instance of true randomness that defied statistical analysis and which existed in the real world outside any mathematical models. However, as Mlodinow demonstrates, Brownian motion can be defined by a study of probability, an equation which renders the motion of these little particles utterly predictable. The same applies to the rest of your life, says Mlodinow, and he repeatedly demonstrates how randomness actually works in your life. He covers everything from all the circumstances that led to the OJ Simpson verdict to pairs of separate events (such as lucky socks and a victory for your baseball team) that have no actual relationship, but which you think do, purely because of the human brain's inability to properly perceive and evaluate probability.

And he does it all in such engaging language that you forget you're reading a math book. It's a terrific read, and it'll make you think about life in a different way. It approaches statistics a lot like Freakonomics approaches, well, economics, drawing surprising connections and rebutting long-held conventional wisdom. It's highly recommended!

With that out of way, let's talk a little bit about the Library in the coming semester. We librarians often find that folks, students and faculty alike, need refreshers every now and again about some important things regarding the Library.

First: Deaf Stacks on the first floor, General Stacks downstairs. If what you're looking for has nothing to do with deaf-related subjects or people, it's probably downstairs. Check the catalog first, though -- it will tell you. If you're still not sure, ask a librarian.

The copy machines and microfilm printers are still 10 cents per page; scanning is free. You're welcome to bring your flash drive and scan away, bearing in mind the copyright restrictions that are in effect. We have signs posted up near the copiers and scanner about those; take a look at them and be sure you know what's what. If you're not sure, ask a librarian.

Loan periods are the same: Deaf Stacks books are 4 weeks for everyone; General Stacks books 4 weeks for undergrads and staff, 6 weeks for grads, current semester for faculty. More details can be found on our Web page about the general borrowing policy (fee/fine information is included on that page as well; it's good reading on general principle). If you have any questions, just send an email to library.help@gallaudet.edu.

If your instructor tells you that he or she has readings available on reserve, those are behind the Service Desk. Those can be borrowed for up to 2 hours and cannot leave the building. In order to get to them for your class, ask whoever's working at the Service Desk. By the way, faculty members, we offer e reserves, which are PDFs of required readings that you can link to your Blackboard pages. To get started, just email your syllabus to library.reserves@gallaudet.edu. See our web page for details.

Yes, we do offer DVDs to watch for entertainment; they're all on the first floor and are marked by a decently-sized sign. If you're not sure how to find them, ask at the Service Desk. You can check out up to 3 at a time for 3 days.

Incidentally, we do offer books to read for entertainment; developing the fiction collection is one of my responsibilities, and I love keeping up with new books and talking about them, so come find me if you want to know what we have. If you're interested in leisure reading material, ask a librarian. Or come find me, which amounts to the same thing (I am a librarian, you know). Or, as always, get in touch through the information on our contact information Web page.

The Archives are downstairs. Go down the main stairs in the center of the Library and look for the dark-brown squares on the floor. Following those past the large glass cases and seating area will take you straight to the Archives. First, though, sometimes the staff at the Service Desk can help you find what you need without having to go downstairs, so be sure to check!

Also downstairs is the eLearning Lab. There are signs posted that point the way; still, because the Library is such an architecturally interesting building, they can be tough to find. If you've looked and looked for the lab and still have had no success, come upstairs and ask a librarian. We have maps and a few surviving Sherpas.

The vending machines for food and drinks are downstairs; you are permitted to eat and drink in the Library, although the usual prohibitions against bathing with Coca-Cola in the middle of the psychology section still apply.

Study space, DVD players, VCRs, and televisions are on the first floor. The basement has only study space; semi-private classrooms and study carrels near our lovely large windows facing Kendall Green and Chapel Hall. TVs, DVD players, and VCRs can be found along the windows on the first floor and in our two labs, where computers are also available: the Deaf Library Study Center (room 1220 -- turn left at the ladies' room, walk down the hall, and it'll be on the right behind the double doors) and in room 1404, in the Reference section, as well as the open computers in the middle of the first floor.

In order to log in, you will need your Gallaudet username and password; ITS policy prohibits non-Gallaudet people from using University resources except under restricted conditions. You should also have your ID with you in order to prove both your identity and your enrollment or employment status.

Actually, this bears repeating: Always have your ID with you. It's required in order to check out or renew books, pay fines, or even to look at your record. We can't accept driver's licenses, military ID, passports, vehicle registrations, voter ID cards, credit card receipts, concealed-carry permits, or pictures of your dog. As a Gallaudet student or employee, you'll have your ID on you at all times anyway, so no big deal ... right? Right.

Our hours for this semester are the same as last semester, except for the different holidays, as well as Spring Break. More information can be found here.

And last, but not least, ask a librarian. E-mail us at library.help@gallaudet.edu for big, complex questions you need help with or to make an appointment, or IM us at GallyLibraryIM -- or just head to library.gallaudet.edu and use the Library Chat widget there -- or just come in for an answer to any quick questions you might have. We're easy to get in touch with!

That covers the basics. Next week, it'll be back to more original stuff; for now, we're all busy getting ready for the new semester!

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Question of the Week
I just brought back a DVD that kept freezing up on me. The librarian took it and put it on a shelf behind the Service Desk; what happens to a movie that's reported damaged?
It gets put on a shelf behind the Service Desk.

And then, of course, I pick it up and watch it. If it doesn't play properly, I clean the disc off (you'd be surprised at how much grape jelly can congeal on these things) and test it a few times. If it tests fine after my quick cleaning, it goes back on the shelf. If it's lightly scratched, it goes to our collection management folks for more intensive cleaning and repair. If it's really banged up, then it needs to be withdrawn from the collection and possibly replaced.

Any discs that go to collection management come back to me when they're done. I usually test the disc again and if it works fine at this point, it goes back on the shelf. If there are still problems, I'll withdraw it from the collection and start considering whether or not to replace the film.

Replacing the film usually depends on the same kind of process I've discussed on this blog before -- is it important to the collection? Is it heavily used? Was it purchased by us or donated? Has it been used for a course? More often than not, it'll get replaced.

What's up with the Library of Congress?

Ahhhh. One of the biggest benefits of being an academic librarian, or otherwise working at a school of some kind, is the long holiday break. I'm relaxed, revitalized, and ready to face the Spring semester.

As much as I can be, at least. This semester will be busier than most; I'm involved with the Academic Bowl, creating questions for competitions and working as a Gallaudet Officer, so a good part of the Spring will see me traveling all over the country to work on regional competitions. If you're working with the Academic Bowl in your region, there's a good chance you'll see me this Spring!

Aside from the extracurricular activities, though, we're all also busy putting things together for the Spring -- electronic reserves, LibGuides, presentations, workshops, classes, new books and movies ... well, the list goes on.

Part of that involves a couple of announcements. First, replacement costs for lost books have gone up all across the WRLC, so the fee we charge has increased from $57 to $67. Not thrilling, but necessary. Publishing costs have gone up, which jacks up a whole bunch of other prices in its wake. It happens.

Second, we've made a slight modification to our home page; you'll see a lovely new pair of boxes at the top of the middle and right-hand columns. The Database Spotlight box is our effort to bring some of our less well-known databases to greater awareness. You'll see a few lines, which will link to a longer summary and standard instructions on how to find the database so you can use it. The From the Blog box is pretty self-explanatory -- we've gotten a few comments from students and faculty that this blog should be featured on the home page more prominently, so we're trying this out. The box will contain the dates and headlines of the last three posts, updated at the same time as this blog.

That's just a couple of new things. There'll be a few more in the coming weeks as we figure out more of what'll be happening both in the Library and on campus over the next semester.

In the meantime, I thought I'd plug something terrifically useful: researcher orientations at the Library of Congress, commonly known in librarian circles as the LOC. They offer classes on how to research in the LOC for the public on some Mondays of almost every month out of the year. You'll learn some really neat facts about the LOC, as well as how their reading rooms are set up and the system they have going. The LOC isn't your ordinary public library, so they do things differently, which means that if you plan to use them for your research, it'd be a good idea to go to one of those orientations. Interpreters are provided upon request, although you will need to place the request at least five business days in advance.

You can register for an orientation and place a request for interpreters and other accommodations here.

The LOC is kind of a funny place; it almost has its own mythology. At least once a semester, I give a presentation to a class that has at least one student who asks me why they should bother using the Gallaudet University Library when the LOC is right up on Capitol Hill. It has every book in the world and is totally open to the public, right? Actually, it doesn't and -- sort of -- isn't.

While it's certainly true that the LOC's mission includes the collection and maintenance of a universal body of knowledge and making it accessible to the public and that it's one of the largest libraries of all time, it has a stronger focus on something else: Congress. It's right there in the name: Library of Congress. More specifically, it's where Congress does its research. The services that the LOC makes available to the public are important, but they come in second to Congress and the rest of the federal government; the stuff they collect is usually acquired with the possible needs of the average Congresscritter in mind, before considering any possible cultural and historical value.

Still, the Library is just so large that you probably won't ever notice this aspect of its operations -- it contains so much information that it's virtually impossible that it won't have what you need.

So: What does Gallaudet have that the Library of Congress doesn't? To simplify matters, personal attention and ease of access.

The LOC is set up in a way that accomplishes a single purpose: maintaining the security of the collection while still providing access. Basically, you have to register for, and get, a reader ID card to get into the reading rooms (some reading rooms may also have more requirements for access, which are all available on the LOC's Web site). Once you've got the card, you need to figure out exactly what it is you want to look at. Every book, every map, every manuscript, including title, author, and call number.

Nearly the entire LOC consists of "closed stacks," which works on a similar principle to the Deaf Copy 1 room here on campus -- members of the public aren't allowed in among the shelves. To look at something from those shelves, you have to go into the reading room, sit down at a desk or table, fill out call slips with the correct information about the books you need, give them to an attendant or librarian, and wait for them to bring those items to you. Many reading rooms also enforce restrictions on what you can bring into the room with you; sometimes those restrictions are so severe that you are essentially limited to a single pencil. And it'd better have an eraser on it.

Okay, so the physical materials aren't so easy to get to. But they have a lot of stuff available online, right?

Weeeelllllll ... yes. They have a lot of stuff related to American history available for free on their Web site, as well as some free databases. However, most of their publicly-accessible stuff is extremely specialized and suitable mostly for very advanced researchers working in very narrow disciplines; the inaccessible stuff can be accessed only by going to the Library of Congress itself in person and searching via one of their computers. Here's the kicker: a lot of what they have online that'll be useful to you is also available through a library much closer to home. Guess which library*. Yeah.

The same principle applies to most other materials -- while it is nice to have an actual Gutenberg Bible to look at, our copy of the Revised Standard Version works just as well, and it's much easier to get to. Anything else might qualify as overkill.

Size is also a consideration. Most of the people I've met who opt for the LOC over us tend to come back with red faces and admit to being overwhelmed by the sheer number of resources available -- it's difficult to sift through tens of thousands of similar books when you just need to find a few case studies to support your conclusion.

That's without discussing the sheer amount of one-on-one help and communication access we offer that the LOC doesn't. We really are a group of knowledgeable librarians who can coordinate with your instructor for the best help possible, any time you need us. Then there's the fact that we know how to sign -- which is something that's hard to find anywhere else. In general, we do offer valuable help that can't be quantified, most of which comes to be through just plain old interacting with you and being a part of the school you attend.

To sum up: The Library of Congress is an incredible resource, but restrictions on access, relatively limited personal help, and the fact that most of what you'll need is available here on campus (after a little expert digging) anyway all combine to make the LOC fairly impractical for most undergraduate and graduate research.

No Question of the Week this week -- with only five days open since the holidays, we haven't had many folks coming in and asking us stuff. Instead, here's a bunch of LOC trivia.

• The Library of Congress encompasses 650 miles of shelf space and contains over 140 million individual items.
• It is the oldest Federal cultural institution in the United States.
• Only half of the Library's collection is in English; the rest is in 470 different languages.
• The Library receives approximately 22,000 items every day.
• However, the number of items actually added to the collection every day is much smaller: 10,000.
• The Library holds the some of the largest collections of items related to certain countries in the world.
• For example, it holds one of the world's largest Tibetan collections.
• It also holds the largest Asian collection outside of Asia; the same is true for Russian materials.
• The largest book in the Library of Congress is 5 feet by 7 feet!
• The Library of Congress contains the world's largest collection of comic books (5,000 titles, 100,000 issues).

*The Gallaudet University Library. Just in case.

Holiday movie recommendations

It's finals week, and things have quietened considerably. Fewer students, fewer faculty, still plenty of staff as we begin to scurry about the work of the interregnum.

That's why I had time to finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. In truth, this is probably the sixth or seventh time I've read it, which does help the 846 pages go by much more quickly. The story helps; it's rich in detail and offers endless newness with each reading. It's a pseudo-historical chronicle of England in the early 19th Century and the renaissance in English magic that occurs in that period, thanks to the effort of the two competing magicians mentioned in the title.

Yes, it's a fantasy work at heart, but so superbly executed that you hardly notice that you're reading anything other than a fascinating account of the life and times of Jonathan Strange and his teacher-turned-nemesis Mr. Norrell, as both work to bring dignity back to the practice of English magic by battling Napoleon at Waterloo and socializing with the day's peerage. Along the way, they fall afoul of a mad fairy who takes advantage of their early-on carelessness to entrap the wife of a significant member of the House of Lords and all-out abduct Jonathan Strange's wife, which precipitates the book's crashing end. In the middle of it all, they must navigate a suspicious government, a fickle public, and underhanded toadies with their own agendas. All of it is written in this wonderfully archaic nineteenth-century style that almost makes you feel as though you're actually reading a contemporary account.

The book is filled with innumerable footnotes referring to nonexistent academic documents, conventional-wisdom anecdotes about fairies and magicians, and truly fascinating historical background about an England that almost sounds like it could have existed.

Now, moving on.

This will be the last blog post for a little while -- I'm taking a break for Christmas and New Year's. We'll be returning on January 8 with an eye toward the Spring semester. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little bit about good movies to watch over Christmas break.

I'm not talking about stuff like A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, or Christmas with the Kranks. Those flicks are all playing on pretty much an infinite loop on most family-oriented cable networks until December 25.

The funny thing about holiday breaks is that, during the period just before and after Christmas, one usually finds oneself at loose ends. When you have a couple of weeks of nothing to look forward to, it's easy to take up residence on the family couch and start ordering takeout from your mom's kitchen. When you slip into that period of holiday ennui, you need something to watch that doesn't have snowflakes swirling around a network logo in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.

One of the best ways to occupy all that time is through the judicious application of movie marathons. Trilogies, series, TV shows on DVD, anything that's at least six hours long. Those films have to be exceptionally absorbing or exceptionally ridiculous to be worth the time, so the following should not be taken too seriously. Here goes:

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
C'mon. Who doesn't love the Lord of the Rings movies? Lush scenery, expansive battles, beautiful people, and a bona-fide epic storyline tying it all together. Peter Jackson demonstrated his love of monumental scale and created one of the best book-to-movie adaptations of all time. Never mind that The Return of the King has about 12 endings stitched together; Sam and Frodo's bromance makes it all worth it.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2; Grindhouse: Death Proof, Planet Terror
I lump both Kill Bill and Grindhouse together because they're both part of a similar oeuvre. One could argue that flicks like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs fit into this group, but they were earlier movies by Quentin Tarantino, so don't quite partake of that 21st-Century violence-and-horror sensibility. The Kill Bill movies are gleaming and slick, a fantastically-narrated achronological revenge narrative in which a pregnant blushing bride (who works as one of the world's greatest assassins on the side) has her wedding interrupted by her coworkers' killing spree, taking the lives of her groom, the preacher, the preacher's wife, a few of her friends, and a few of his. The incident puts her in a coma and she wakes up four years later with her womb empty and her head filled with rage, and proceeds to go on a bloody rampage until she fetches up against her former boss and lover: Bill.

True to form, the Kill Bill films are bloody, clever, violent, and beautifully-done. On the other hand, the Grindhouse films are somewhat different. Done in the style of 1950s-era B-movies, they're grainy, scratched, and stuttery ... most of the time. Both films were helmed by different directors, but with significant roles for both in each. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof tells the story of a homicidal stuntman who enjoys killing young women with his specially-reinforced car, until he comes up against a group of beautiful -- but exceptionally bloodthirsty -- women. This film has some of the most fantastic driving scenes I've ever seen, winding through the hills of Tennessee as the hunter becomes the hunted.

Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, however, is a different beast, and far closer to the B-movie archetype; a shadowy group of scientists tries to sell their biological weapon to the Army in a deal that goes spectactularly bad. The weapon is released, an entire Texas town gets transformed into cannibalistic, pus-oozing zombies, and the only hope lies with a one-legged stripper and her estranged lover, a felon/undercover Federale who should not be permitted near a gun.

El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Three of Robert Rodriguez's early films, this trilogy spans a period in the life of El Mariachi, an innocent Mexican mariachi player who falls in love. A lot. The first woman he falls in love with turns out to be involved with a local drug cartel, and is killed for her troubles. This incident sends El Mariachi on a lifelong trajectory of vengeance against the rapacious cartels that proliferate in Mexico. Yes, more killing, violence, and rage, but the trilogy focuses much more on El Mariachi himself and his attempts to regain his innocence. Set against the backgroup of the most beautiful Mexico you've ever seen, it's a deep examination of what makes us human and what can cause us to lose that humanity.

Star Wars: Episodes I-VI
Yes, all six episodes. It'll take you a couple of days to get through. It's worth it, though; even though the more-recently-made Episodes I-III are distinctly inferior to the older Episodes IV-VI, watching all six in sequence will give you a much better idea of what George Lucas was trying to do with his space opera. It isn't all ray guns and funny-looking aliens -- it's a work that tried to measure up to the likes of The Thorn Birds or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a generational saga that tried to be epic in its scope but instead ended up being a biography of Anakin Skywalker: his rise, his fall, his final redemption. The whole saga probably would have been better had it picked one -- generational epic or focused biography -- or the other. Still, it's a good try, and you see plenty of flashes of greatness, especially as you work your way toward the final episodes.

Heathers, Clueless, Mean Girls
Lest you think I'm all about explosions, death, murder, and war, here's a good collection of three movies to watch in sequence. They're unified only by their genre: teen high-school mean-girl comedy. Why do I recommend this? It's a great way to start thinking about how times have changed. Heathers was released in 1988, Clueless in 1995, and Mean Girls in 2004. Heathers is the story of a popular girl with a heart and her unfortunate tryst with a sociopath, and the tragedy that results. It's chock-full of dark humor ("Heather, what is your damage?") and will have you laughing at the teen sociopath's attempts to rationalize his actions using some faint echoes of Randian Objectivism. Unless you believe in it, in which case, it's got a sympathetic character you can root for!

Clueless takes you into the life of an affluent-but-shallow girl and the unreal world she inhabits, which is shaken by the advent of a grunge-chic chick from the East Coast. There's plenty of goofy humor (the movie that launched a thousand "Whatevers") and most of the high school depicted is populated by stereotypical sketches, but a film like this says much more about the culture that produced it than the one it portrays. The same is true about Mean Girls, although it is much closer to the reality of contemporary high school, mixed in with the snappy comebacks one more typically sees in sitcoms. Still, the ending gives you that "we met the enemy and he is us" moment that can often act as a valuable reality-check.

Anything by Mel Brooks: Spaceballs, History of the World Part I, Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Producers, Young Frankenstein
One of the original Hollywood spoofers, Mel Brooks has a longstanding reputation for lampooning popular culture in his movies. Most of the humor is juvenile, the acting isn't great, and the special effects are pretty hit-or-miss ... but they're funny! Brooks doesn't take moviemaking very seriously, so don't expect to get absorbed into a whole new world or anything -- a film camera smashes a medieval stained-glass window, a spaceship radar dish gets jammed with raspberry, the most insulting of all jams, and a German woman with a lisp discovers the truth about black men -- but all of his movies are immensely entertaining.

Popular wuxia films: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; House of Flying Daggers; Kung Fu Hustle
Wuxia is sort of a genre of Chinese historical martial-arts films. Not "historical" in the literal sense; although many of those movies are loosely based on historical accounts and/or stories, the operative word here is "loosely." They're more like period pieces, which may or may not strive for plot consistency over historical accuracy.

With that said, all four films are generally kung-fu love stories. The first three are serious and set in actual historical periods that cover around 2,000 years of Chinese history, ranging from the Warring States period (around 400 BCE; Hero) to the Qing Dynasty (sometime in the late 18th Century; Crouching Tiger), stopping in at the decline of the Tang dynasty (859 CE, to be exact, for House of Flying Daggers). All three are beautifully filmed, using sweeping landscapes and some of the most amazing colors you've seen in a long time. The fights are especially well-choreographed and make heavy use of slow-motion filming, as well as lots of gravity-defying stunts.

The one odd duck in the bunch, Kung Fu Hustle, is a total spoof of the previous three. Set in Shanghai of the 1940s, Hustle is the story of a rogue who accidentally foments conflict between one of the city's poorest districts and one of its most notorious organized-crime syndicates. However, the poor residents of the district are much, much more than they seem -- as is the fool who got them involved in the first place. Underpinning the story is this sort of gleefully cartoonish sensibility, one that allows the harridan of a landlady run someone down on foot Roadrunner-style, only to be thwarted by an inconveniently-placed billboard, or the Number One Killer in the World and his taste for cheap pink plastic slippers. It's hilarious and one of the most absurd films I've seen in a long time. It serves as a great relaxant after the seriousness of Crouching Tiger, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers.

And ... that wraps it up. Have a good holiday, everyone!

break time!

It's the last week of classes? Whoa. Uh ...

Whoa. When did that happen? It feels like only yesterday that we were schlepping a few tons of lemonades and goodies outside to greet the arriving freshmen and their families and doing our best not to sweat too much. Now here we are in December, it's the last week of classes, and pretty much everyone who matters on campus (i.e., students) is in the process of slowly slinking off to their respective holiday destinations. Of course, we've still got finals week, but who cares about those?

We survived!

I have to admit that this was my first full Fall semester. I arrived last November right before Thanksgiving, so honestly didn't see much of the onslaught all the other Library staff had just gone through. They warned me all through the past year, but honestly ... how busy could it possibly be?

I feel stupid. And tired. But good! We saw a lot of students in here over the last few months, taking full advantage of what we have to offer. We spent a few weeks bugging students, faculty, and staff alike to share their feelings about us, with interesting results. It seems people appreciate having us here, but are dubious about the building itself, which is a bit like an old warhorse that can't tell left from right (just try finding the bathrooms around here ... ). Not an unfair assessment, but the Fall semester has, so far, left us feeling pretty good.

Before I go on to describe what we'll be doing once the semester officially ends, I just had to plug another fantastic English book after last week's Origins of the Specious: Word Nerd.

Unlike Origins, Word Nerd's not a narrative text; it's actually a lot closer to an actual dictionary, albeit one that discusses surprising definitions and word factoids. For instance, did you know that the word "absurd" comes from Latin? Ab- is a prefix meaning "completely," while -surdus means "deaf!" Apparently, the original sense was "deaf to the truth" or "deaf to the voice of reason." It really makes sense -- in those times, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, so tradition and, in some schools, education were passed on orally and retained strictly by memory. The ability to hear had a much bigger premium placed on it in that era than in our highly-visual times, so someone who could hear but refused to listen was seen as contravening prevailing norms -- hence, "absurd."

Mostly, Word Nerd's great for people who like esoteric words, like "pelage" for the "fur, hair, wool, etc., of a mammal;" funny usages, such as "cube" for "an extremely conservative person;" interesting origins, such as "urchin," which originally meant "hedgehog," "goblin," or "elf;" and plain useless stuff, such as knowing that "hesperian" can be used in place of "western," along with "boreal," "ortive," and "austral," for "northern," "eastern," and "southern," respectively -- but only if referring to the act of rising in any one of those directions!

It isn't the kind of book you'd actually read for pleasure, but it's pretty fun to skim through for word nerds, appropriately enough.

So what's happening with the Library and your librarians over the winter break? Plenty.

The Library
We've been busy getting people to take surveys so we can check up on how we're doing and figure out what people want this year. There have been a lot of results, so we'll be spending the break on getting those results together, figuring them out, and deciding how to respond to the feedback we've gotten so far. We'll also be planning our outreach to various groups before and during the Spring semester.

We'll also be losing one of our librarians next summer; Jane Rutherford is retiring. It's an exciting time for her! It's also an exciting time for those of us who are still going to be around; it's a great opportunity to reassess our priorities, examine how we're providing our services, and figure out how we can best meet everyone's needs in response to the changes that are going on around us.

We'll also be hard at work writing LibGuides for new courses as well as new and old resources. Last semester saw some strong LibGuides usage, and we're looking to build on that.

Diana Gates
Diana has three major projects for the Deaf Collection, which includes everything deaf-related. Out-of-print materials and foreign materials are going to be a big focus. She's also planning to continue the hunt for deaf people from the past and finding publications or productions to add to the collection, one of her favorite parts of the job, although it can be time-intensive. Another project involves contacting deaf schools to obtain copies of their yearbooks to fill in gaps in the collection. The third project is deciding which of 3000 u-matic videotapes should be preserved and transferred into digital format. And, of course, she plans to prepare for a new semester and focus on other tasks involved.

Laura Jacobi
Cleaning. Laura will be doing a lot of cleaning. Her files, the Service Desk area, the Library's Web site, call numbers 360-369 (social problems and services), and our standing orders, which are essentially things that we get on a recurring basis, like encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, and bibliographies. Many of those are updated yearly and keep our Reference section full and up to date. However, these days, those items don't see much use, so we're reducing the money we spend on these and applying that money to other, more heavily-used services.

Laura's also responsible for scheduling librarians on the Service Desk; when the holiday period rolls around, people start taking time off, and things can get hopelessly complicated between all the subs, changing hours, and varying levels of student use. This necessitates making a new schedule from scratch once everyone's holiday plans are finalized. In addition to that, of course, we've got a whole new semester coming up, and individual librarians' schedules can change depending on new weekly obligations, student assistant availability, and operating hours, so an overall schedule for the Service Desk needs to be written for that, too. No shortage of stuff to do!

Jane Rutherford
More LibGuides, plus, as the Library's resident Web-based potentate, she'll be spending the break working on the Web site. She'll also be planning out a big meeting with the faculty in one of her departments to discuss the curriculum and materials to order. Through all of that, she'll also start the process of cleaning out her office, transferring data from her old computer, and generally getting ready to retire.

Patrick Oberholtzer
Patrick plans to order new items for his subject areas, which seem to be multiplying, in addition to weeding older, outdated books from his parts of the collection. Since a lot of what he does relates to math and the sciences, this seems like a good idea! He'll also be meeting with faculty in different departments to discuss changes in the curriculum and work on some LibGuides (one of our big projects for the break) for History & Government.

In January, Patrick's also heading to Boston for the ALA Midwinter Conference, an event eagerly anticipated by librarians everywhere. Unless, of course, it's in a place like Boston in a month like January ... but it's still exciting! He plans to attend workshops on assessing information literacy, next-generation catalogs, and providing reference services in the digital age. He'll also be trolling the exhibition floor for any new products and databases for the Library, focusing specifically on stuff relating to developing countries and biology.

Jim McCarthy
What am I doing? Mostly drinking rum-laced eggnog, dodging snowflakes, and looking for holiday-themed videos of kittens on YouTube.

Okay, maybe not. I am visiting my family for Christmas, though -- spending a few days in sunny Florida is, I think, just what the doctor ordered! I'll also be checking through my files, looking for missing books in my subject areas that may need to be replaced, getting ready to undergo another big weeding project from the parts of the collection relating to English and Linguistics, and writing LibGuides for some classes and the Literary Resource Center, a terrific database focused on literature and all related pursuits. It's seen a surprisingly good amount of use already for something we've only had for a month, but I plan to promote it to faculty and staff over break, along with a few other databases that should be used more heavily than they are. There are also a few existing guides that need to be revised, updated, and expanded.

I'll also be working on ordering new stuff, talking with faculty about shifting focus to certain parts of the collection, and doing a little work related to the Library's Web site. More on that later. Also planning out a few new displays for the Spring, and possibly setting up a few fun workshops, both early in the semester to get people's minds off the winter and later to help with the stress of getting ready for graduation or plain old all-around school-related stress.

Oof. Students are lucky. They get a whole freakin' month off. Still, we're better off than most corporate drones -- only in academia can one get at least a week off every year without cutting into their vacation time! We're all looking forward to the holidays and getting started on the behind-the-scenes stuff that we don't usually have time for in the middle of the semester, and when everyone comes back in January, there'll be some new stuff to look forward to!

Heck, it's the end of the semester. No Question of the Week this week or next. If you're leaving early, enjoy your break; if you're sticking around for finals, good luck!

Using databases for personal research

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I met up with some friends and we ate, talked, played games, and just had an all-around good time.

Over the break, I also polished off The Origins of the Specious by Patricia T. O'Conner and feel immensely smarter as a result.

The reason? I get yelled at from time to time for trying to flagrantly split infinitives, pronouncing "forte" as though it were an Army post instead of the French word it isn't, indiscriminately calling a spade a spade, refusing to be gobsmacked by a British accent, and finding prepositions to end a sentence with.

Hogwash, says O'Conner. Although she repeats a lot of stuff I already knew -- being an avid reader of blogs about linguistics, lexicography, orthography, and syntax, as well as a librarian specializing in that subject area, it's hard to avoid being saturated with descriptivism -- she does so in a very entertaining way, and also manages to reveal new information. For example, did you know that in spite of what some Londoners (*cough* Prince of Wales *cough*) might say, British English is not the "better" version of English? There is no better version, but if you were to seriously argue it out with an angry Mancunian, the truth is that a lot of so-called Americanisms are actually holdovers from before the Colonies split from the Crown.

You can thank Noah Webster for that -- he's the guy who compiled the first English dictionary on our side of the Atlantic -- and his competition with Samuel Johnson, who did the same over in England. Webster decided he'd prefer to maintain the more traditional orthography (like "theater"), while Samuel Johnson, being the radically progressive sort, decided to adopt the spellings that had emerged in recent decades (like "theatre"). The same is true with our "-ize" and their "-ise" -- ours is the older ending, while theirs is actually the result of various attempts to Latinize the English language by cutting up a bunch of French words and sticking them on the end of English words. This has continued even today, with "kerb" and "flat" being adopted by Britons over the more old-fashioned "curb" and "apartment."

Even more interesting is the difference between British and American accents. They pronounce things differently than we do, and the assumption is that their way is the more old-fashioned, the product of a thousand-year-old monarchy (give or take a Cromwell or two), while we're the upstarts. O'Conner blew me away here -- apparently the British pronunciation is newer than ours! After the Revolution, the English language was torn asunder, and, in Britain, began evolving away from the common form almost immediately. They lost the 'r' (in a debate which might have killed Percy Bysshe Shelley) and gained the broad vowel (like "pawth" instead of "pahth"), while ours stayed pretty much the same.

This means that we in the United States sound an awful lot like seventeenth-century Englishmen! I like to think that William Shakespeare himself might have felt at home in the Mall of America. Take a look at the book sometime -- it makes English sound much more like the fascinating language it really is.

Before we move on to today's main topic, I'd like to make a suggestion. It's getting close to Christmas, and it's one of those times of year when you may end up getting a bunch of new stuff. If you'd like to make room for it all, consider donating any extra books or movies to the Library. Just make sure any movies you bring are captioned or subtitled and that everything's in good condition. Check ALADIN Discovery before you bring it all in, though, and make sure we don't already have what you bring in. We'll still take it, but if it's not in better condition than what we have, it may go on the Book Sale shelf.

In the meantime, let's talk a little bit about more general research of the kind that you'd most likely use Google for: personal curiosity! Sometimes Gallaudet students, faculty, or staff want to research stuff just for their own edification, outside of class -- I know I do -- and they're more than welcome to do so with our databases.

Let's say you want to find out more about what's going on in Congress. Or the twinge in your knee after your last pick-up basketball game. Google's a pretty good place to go! However -- and this is a big however -- Google has its flaws and you have much better resources at your disposal when you're affiliated with Gallaudet as a student or faculty or staff member.

We'll take a look at the two examples (Congress, knee twinge) mentioned above and how you can use your affiliation with Gallaudet to find the best information available.

To start with: Congress. Most of what happens in Congress is public information and is avidly covered by news outlets and individual bloggers on the Internet, which means that lots of information can come easily to hand. However, searching for stuff on Congress can lead to getting drowned in political attack Web sites ('Ginny Brown-Waite, D-Fl: Does She Eat Babies? Anonymous Sources Say Yes'), fluffy news articles ('Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Opens Binghamton IKEA to Fanfare'), and the politician's own propaganda engines ('Press Release from the Office of Senator Max Baucus: Sen. Baucus Meets, Greets Foreign Heads of State').

Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff is genuine information about what's happening in the legislature. Still, it can take a lot of time to sift through a mass of conflicting and unreliable sources, when you just want real, unbiased reporting.

Fortunately, there's a solution: CQ Weekly. That's one of our databases, which you can find by going to "Databases by Subject" in ALADIN and clicking on the list item that says "Multi-subject:Articles/Dissertations." CQ Weekly reports on Congress: what issues are before the legislature, what senators and representatives are doing, fundraising status, all sorts of things Congressional. CQ also offers useful tools like appropriation charts, quick summaries of bills to watch, vote charts, and listings of current public laws, all of which offer frequent and regular updates. It's a beautiful thing.

CQ Weekly, incidentally, is one of a group of databases owned by CQ Press. We've also got access to CQ Researcher, which provides incredibly useful summaries written by seasoned journalists on the state of current issues in the United States and around the world. Both CQs are always worth checking out.

As for that pain in your knee ... well, it could be any number of things, right? Google brings up 7.21 million search results for "knee injury." Yikes. Now what?

Now -- and this should have been done before checking Google -- the first thing you should do is see a doctor and get it treated. Seriously. Quit self-diagnosing.

If, after you've seen a qualified medical professional, found out that it's being caused by damage to your meniscus, and begun treatment, you're still curious about why this sort of thing happens and other ways to treat it, head to ALADIN. Look for "Databases by Subject" and find the list item that says "Audiology/Human Biology/Medical Sciences" and take a look at it. There are a few good possibilities there; the most obvious-looking ones are both called PubMed (Central and Medline) and are run by the National Library of Medicine. Central is a full-text database, while Medline only collects citations, so if you're going to use either, go for Central. However, they're both extremely technical, so unless you're highly conversant with human biology and medicine, try CINAHL instead: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. This, too, can be technical, but for the most part, it's more practically applicable -- you can see articles listed about various types of meniscal injuries related to basketball and the most common treatments for them It's pretty nice!

If you're not looking for scholarly research about your knee, though, the National Library of Medicine also provides a free public resource named (confusingly) Medline Plus at http://medlineplus.gov. It's a terrific resource for the ailments that come as a result of day-to-day living.

You should bear in mind that our resources cover many topics and by no means are we limited to politics and orthopedics; it's always a good idea to take a quick look at our listing of databases in order to fully understand exactly what you do have access to. If you come across a database name that doesn't obviously denote its content -- ProQuest comes to mind -- ask a librarian.

In general, though, we do have an amazing amount of resources, both online and off. It really is to your benefit to take advantage of all you have available to you, even if it's for personal purposes rather than for school-related reasons. Using our databases in this way brings another benefit: it's practice. The more you use our databases, for whatever reason, the more you learn about how you can use them, and the better you'll become at performing academic research. Plus it makes your librarians feel good. Everyone wins!

Next week is the last week of classes, so everyone's going to be busy focusing on schoolwork. Because of that, we'll be doing a puff piece: What goes on in the Library after everyone's gone home for the winter break?

---

Question of the Week
I remember last winter, during break, the Library was open. Will that happen again this year? Also, I kind of freaked out when I tried to renew a book online and it said my record expired. Is this normal and why does it happen?
We will definitely be open during winter break, except for December 25-January 3, when we'll be closed for the period between Christmas and New Year's. Otherwise, our hours will be Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. You can certainly come in and check stuff out when we're open!

As for your record expiring, that is normal. It's built into the system as a consequence of our semester system -- all records are set to expire at the end of each semester, and are then updated at the beginning of the next semester after you've registered for classes and we know that you are, in fact, coming back. Just come on in, let us know if you'll be back in the Spring, and we'll fix you up.

It's all about RefWorks!

Here comes Thanksgiving and papers and finals and ...

Well, we'll focus on that in just a minute. First, I just finished Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six following the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery. Lengthy title notwithstanding, this book came to us after weeks of enthusiastic recommendations from various directions, and after reading it, I can understand why. At its root, it's a science-fiction (SF) novel, a genre which doesn't always get the respect it deserves in certain quarters. Some forget that fantastic writers like Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, HG Wells, Mary Shelley, Michael Chabon, and Kurt Vonnegut (to name just a few) were or are all SF authors. That's without including Isaac Asimov, who alone occupies 9 of the 10 major Dewey classifications (except the 100s, philosophy and psychology) and ... well, that's another post. The point is that the SF label isn't sufficient justification for dismissal.

Liberation is a good example of SF that works well as a piece of literature on a par with The Road or Oryx and Crake; as the title makes obvious, this is the story of an America crushed beneath the falling dollar and the flight of foreign investors, leading to the bankruptcy of the government and the total collapse of American society. This results in an landscape that's been peculiarly changed; after the initial flurry of riots and small wars dies down, people are more or less intact but incredibly poor, so they make do with the junk left over from their former lives.

Families take up residence in stripped station wagons and spin thread for textiles on wheels mounted on car axles, children gather junk from the shore and refashion various useful multitools to hawk on the streets, a single individual gathers all the information from around the country and sends it out in weekly digests via telegraph, fiber-optic cable, and the few remaining American-owned satellites, and other small-but-brilliant indications of the ingenuity and vibrance that's still left even after the death of the government. There's no real political organization larger than, say, Asheville, North Carolina, the last place on the continent south of Canada that's still free. Economically, though, most of the financial activity in the former United States is run by the Aardvark, a criminal-turned-king who rules from New York and runs most of the revived slave trade.

Enter the Slick Six: a band of thieves before the collapse who pulled off unimaginably huge heists using the members' strange skills at accounting, electronics, information dissemination, being charming, being smart, and killing people. One of them was shipped off to jail -- literally, on a prison ship somewhere in the North Atlantic -- before the end of society, and when he returns, he finds himself determined to bring the Slick Six back together and bring down the Aardvark and end slavery for the second time in American history. Whether he's successful or not, of course, is a matter of perspective. It's a narrative that reminds me strongly of Thomas Pynchon and other authors who can easily occupy an entire page with a single sentence that can take you halfway across the continent before you realize the subject's been changed.

It's highly recommended, especially if you're worried about the economy. It's pure speculation, of course, but it's still a terrific read!

After that lengthy synopsis and brief digression on the nature of SF and its awful treatment at the hands of literary snobs, let's focus on something more practical, especially as the semester winds down: RefWorks. I'm going to do this all in a Q&A format, mostly because I'm tired of writing long narrative posts and because there are several questions common to each student encounter with RefWorks.

What is RefWorks?
Why, that's simple. It's a bibliographic content management system!

By which I mean, of course, that it can store all the citation information from the articles, books, Web sites and other sources you come across while you're doing your research, organize all those articles, and then automatically create a "Works Cited" list for you to insert in your paper or project. Or a "References" list or whatever else is prescribed by the style manual you're using (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

Cue heavenly glow. Cue angelic choir. That's what I see in the faces of most of the students whom I introduce to RefWorks when I mention that last. It's crazy. I'll explain more about that later; suffice it to say that RefWorks does a lot of work for you while you're researching.

How do I find it?
Go to library.gallaudet.edu and look in the middle box in the top row on the page with a sort of burgundy/maroon-colored header bar that says "Research Help." You should see a link third from the bottom that says "RefWorks." Click on it.

Next, you'll see another page, this time with a bunch more links. This is the Library-RefWorks page. To go straight to RefWorks, just click the link at the top, the one saying "Link to RefWorks." However, if it's your first time, I do strongly suggest that you read the rest of the page.

Why? Well, we have two videos created by Jane Rutherford, one of our Instruction & Reference Librarians, that walk you through the fundamentals of using RefWorks; both videos are identical, one just has voice added. They are terrifically useful, and having them means I can skip the details here.

You'll also see a list of "Import Guides" along the right-hand side of the screen. These are important for two reasons. First, they relate to one of RefWorks' most useful functions, which is the ability to automatically transfer all citation information from the database articles of your choice right into RefWorks, saving you all the time it'd take to type a single reference into the online form provided by RefWorks. This is awesome.

Unfortunately, not all databases are created equal; each one transfers citations into RefWorks by different methods. This is the second reason why the import guides are important: they all include step-by-step instructions for getting citations into RefWorks for each database (including our catalog, ALADIN Discovery). Because of that, this is one window you'll want to keep open while you're doing your research.

Do I really need to create an account?
Yup. It's free, doesn't ask for much personal information, takes very little time, and is definitely worth it.

Okay, I kind of get what you're saying. But ... how do I really use it?
It varies according to your needs. Here's an example of the research process I'd use for articles by themselves:

1. Open RefWorks, sign in, and keep it open the entire time. Just leave it alone
2. Open the Library's RefWorks page (with the links to all the import guides on it) and leave that open, too
3. Get started on researching by picking a database
   
4. After deciding which database you want to use, go back to the list of import guides and open the one for the database you're using. Leave it open while you're searching.
5. Search and find whatever articles you'll need in that database
   
6. Follow the instructions on the import guide to get all the citations you want to use into RefWorks
7. Once the citations are in RefWorks, you get to decide what you want to do with the citations:
1. Leave them where they are (RefWorks puts them into the 'Last Imported' folder)
   
2. Put them into a folder specifically for this topic (you can create it before you start researching or do it at this point, using the Folders menu in the RefWorks menu bar)

For, say a book that doesn't come from a Consortium library (remember, RefWorks can work with information from ALADIN Discovery) or a Web site or, really, anything else, you'll need to create the reference itself. It's less of a pain than you'd think in RefWorks, though:

1. In RefWorks, open the menu named References and select "Add a new reference"
2. You'll see a big form full of what seems like hundreds of blank fields. Don't worry about those -- just look at the top of the form
1. Make sure that the right style is selected in View fields used by: drop-down next to the "Save Reference" button
   
2. If you want to put the reference in a specific folder, select that in the next drop-down
   
3. Now you'll need to figure out the Ref type. Fortunately, RefWorks' options are pretty straightforward; pick the one that applies
3. When you pick the reference type, the form will automatically reload with green checkmarks next to certain fields.
   
4. Fill in as many of the green-checked fields as possible
1. Those are the fields that will be used in whatever reference type and style you picked
2. If the information for a specific field simply isn't available (if your book has an author but no editors, for example), don't worry. A green check mark next to the field doesn't mean it's required, just recommended.
   
5. Once you've filled in as much as you can fill in, click on "Save Reference"
   
6. That's it.

Now for the grand finale! After you're done with all your researching, you can now create a reference list for your paper:

1. Click on Bibliography in the Menu bar
2. Pick your style (APA 6th Edition, maybe)
3. Pick the format you want the list to be in (usually "Word for Windows (2000 or later)")
4. Pick the folder you want the references to come from
5. Click on "Create Bibliography"
6. A page will come up, saying something like "Formatting ... " Just wait.
7. Then a download window will pop up. Save it to your computer first.
8. Open it and make sure it's complete and nothing's gone horribly wrong (computers can be funny, huh? Real funny)
9. Copy and paste away to your heart's content.
   

Wow. It really does make a reference list for your paper.
Yup. You okay?

Hello?

Wow.
Hello?

Well, anyway, it's a fantastic tool to have. It removes a lot of the strain involved in keeping track of large numbers of articles while you're working on your project or paper. And we provide it for free!

The only real downside to using RefWorks is the time it takes to learn a new way of doing things, figure out the interface, and get used to it all. Fortunately, it pays off big in the end.

If you have any further questions about RefWorks or could use some more in-depth training, feel free to get in touch with us to set up an appointment -- whether through e-mail at library.help@gallaudet.edu, via IM through library.gallaudet.edu, or by just plain old droppin' by.

That ends this week. This blog will be taking Thanksgiving off -- it could really use some turkey and stuffing -- so we'll see you again on December 4!

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Question of the Week
What are your hours over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend?
Here they are:

Tuesday, November 24: 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Wednesday, November 25: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day: Closed
Friday, November 27: Closed
Saturday, November 28: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday, November 29: 12 p.m. - 12 a.m.