Research paper award, Dutch painters, baseball, and free stuff

A couple of last-minute additions have made this particular post a little long and confusing -- to me, at least -- so I'm breaking it up into discrete sections.

The part where I plug our research paper award
First off, let's start with a Shameless Plug: The Library's Undergraduate Research Paper Award. It's quite a mouthful and maybe it'd be neater if we called it the Lurp Award (or ... not), but if you ever wanted to be rewarded for good writing with more than a simple letter -- I assume that letter is an "A," right? -- this is your chance.

Why? We're giving away $200 to the best paper. There isn't an extra zero there; that's how much money we'll give you for a good paper. Of course, it's in the form of a gift card to Barnes & Noble, so if you like books, DVDs, and a whole lot of Starbucks coffee and pastries, this is the one for you. Plus, it'll be announced at the Awards Day ceremony toward the end of the semester, so everyone'll know about your writing chops.

The Web page with all the info is here; the deadline's 9 p.m. next Tuesday, April 6th, so if you want a chance at that two large, get hopping!

The part where I plug Hendrick Avercamp
I was thrilled to hear earlier this week that the National Gallery here in town is hosting an exhibition on Hendrick Avercamp. If you don't know him, shame on you; he's one of the earliest known deaf people! And a fantastic artist to boot; he's famous for his scenes of life in 17th-Century Netherlands, which also allow us a glimpse at that period of time known as the Little Ice Age, which occurred sometime between 1400-1900 (estimates vary based on local conditions). During that period, global temperatures dropped significantly for no apparent reason for about four hundred years (again, estimates vary), and the world became a much colder place until the Industrial Revolution kicked into gear, started polluting, and got the world to warm up again. Or the Industrial Revolution actually had a negligible impact -- they're still trying to figure that one out.

In the Netherlands, though, unlike the rest of Europe, the incredibly harsh winters were actually welcomed; remember, this is the country where ice skating as we know it (with an edge on the skates so they cut into the ice instead of gliding on top) was invented in the 13th or 14th Centuries. Avercamp was known even in his own time for his beautiful depictions of wintertime ice skaters on the local canals; folks of the time found his talent especially notable because he was deaf and couldn't speak at all, which is why we know as much about him as we do today.

This is a unique opportunity: the Dutch museum that usually holds his paintings is undergoing a major renovation, so Avercamp's paintings and those of his countrymen are on a tour around the world until 2012 or so. They're bunking down at the National Gallery until July 5.

The part where I talk about what I read this week
Now, what did I read this week? Interestingly, I wandered a bit further afield and got a book delivered from George Mason University using our CLS service, mostly because it's a book I'm considering purchasing for the Library and was curious about what it really entailed. It's called Museum by Danny Danziger, and it's a collection of interviews with a total of around 50 employees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The book is fascinating; all of the Met employees interviewed work in different departments, from one of the cleaners to a few trustees and the then-director himself, Philippe de Montebello (he retired in 2008). They come from all walks of life, from Harlem and baseball cards to extraordinarily wealthy families that hung Picassos and Monets in their living rooms. The paths that led them to the Met vary from twisty -- as in the case of the Central Park cop with two degrees in history -- to ruler-straight -- like the trustee who inherited her love for, and deep involvement with, the Met from her parents -- and every single one is interesting. A large number of curators from a few of the Met's collections are represented, from 20th-Century American textiles to 16th-Century arms and armor.

Overall, the effect is one of intimacy; you really get a terrific snapshot of the people behind the art and the building, and you gain an idea of the world that lurks behind all museums. It adds a nice significance to the whole idea of preserving and exhibiting cultural artifacts, and lets you see a few nuts and a handful of bolts. It's just fantastic on general principle. As far as adding it to the collection, I'm ambivalent. On the one hand, it's a terrific read and really does give you a good idea of some of the things that go on behind the scenes to ensure that you have access to some tremendous history and culture. On the other hand, it's more anecdotal than I'm quite comfortable with as an addition to a collection of practical utility. I'll probably end up getting it anyway -- many of our books have interest and value beyond simple education, like many of the ones I've covered in this blog over the past year or so.

The part where I acknowledge this blog's birthday a month late
Oh! That reminds me. Somehow I managed to completely overlook the fact that this blog's first anniversary passed a month ago. Happy belated birthday, blog!

The part where my baseball-obsessed director told me to remind you of an upcoming important national celebration
Opening Day. April 5. Next Monday. ESPN or be square. Although I joke around a little bit about my director and her all-consuming mania for cowhide, I'm busily planning out my schedule of Saturday games through October, and you probably should too. To do otherwise would be un-American.

The part where I inform you about useful resources for research
As for this week, a recent comment on this blog -- which is a rare event! you guys are quiet -- got me thinking about the different resources that are available out there. This is also partly prompted by some students who've been coming in over this past week asking about how to find information related to government programs, thinking that academic databases are the only way to garner any useful insights, and that any research worth looking at carries a price tag.

That's not always so. Here's a quick list of the three major free, little-known, high-quality academic resources available to everyone:

• Education Resources Information Center (ERIC): It used to be an index/bibliography of education-related articles and publications, but they've been adding more and more full text over the years. Its name is fairly self-explanatory, but within the field of education, it's astonishingly comprehensive and has proven to be valuable for deaf education in particular. It's a federal project through the U.S. Department of Education. For more information, check out this page about their holdings.
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): This one created quite a stir when it emerged a few years ago, mostly because academic publishers can be super-protective of the stuff they publish. This is partly because of copyright, because of intellectual property issues, and because of, well, the pursuit of profit. As a librarian, I support open access to research for everyone -- it's not fair that only people who can afford to go to college get to see the work that underlies much of what we know today -- but I'm realistic enough to really appreciate a thing like DOAJ. It's an online directory of journals that offer their content free of charge. Some might require registration, but won't ask you to pay a cent; you know this because DOAJ itself has a policy that states that anything linked to from their Web site must be free. They also require peer review or some kind of editorial quality control to be included, which means that most of the stuff in there is good to use for your academic work (see more information about their criteria here).
  
• The Federal Government

This last one seems to take most people by surprise. I'm not sure why; Uncle Sam is probably the single most prolific producer of freely-accessible research in the world. The sheer amount of information shoved at you is overwhelming. The Census Bureau alone provides a significant amount of the basic demographic data you'll ever need, and sites like disability.gov, irs.gov, health.gov (weird and looks like it hasn't been redesigned since 2000, but immensely useful), and grants.gov, among many, many others, offer still more practical resources that address a wide variety of needs.

In addition, Congress is currently working on the Federal Research Public Access Act, which would mandate that all federally-funded research (with some exceptions, like certain classes of defense research -- ahem) be available online to the public for free within 6 months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. For everything else, the funding agency has to at least come up with a policy of some kind that would make the research publicly available.

That's without going into public records, such as specific pieces of legislation, budget information, and governmental assets. Nearly everything the federal government does is available to look up; the only limitations are either time (it can take a while to post it online) and any issues with national security (classified research, for example, or troop movements in times of war).

In general, don't be afraid to think outside the box that ProQuest and Ebsco can build around your research habits. Those two databases, and others like them, are must-haves for any scholar worth his or her salt, but your work does not, by any means, need to be exclusively a product of the material contained therein. There's plenty of stuff out there!

Just one cautionary note, because it's come up before: Just because it's freely available doesn't mean you don't need to cite it. Cite everything and cite it properly and completely. In the spirit of this post, here are links to decent style guides available online for free, all thanks to Purdue University:

• MLA
• APA
• Chicago

I think that's my good deed for the week. I'm off next Friday (yes ... again), so you'll see a new post on Thursday!

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The part where I answer the question of the week
What's this Aladin Mobile thing I keep hearing about?
Pretty much what it sounds like -- something pretty fabulous.

See, I have this habit of buying books for myself. I like to read. What can I say? But I try to avoid buying for myself any books that the Library has, so when I'm in the bookstore, right in front of the bookshelf, I like to check the catalog to make sure I'm not spending money I shouldn't. The problem is, the catalog -- both the old version and Discovery -- ranges from extremely difficult to near-impossible to check on a cell phone. I've got an Android phone and even that struggles with the catalog; I've heard similar complaints from my Apple-cultist friends.

Aladin Mobile fixes all that and looks pretty too! It works for iPhones, Blackberries, Palm Pres, and, of course, Android. You can search the catalog at the university of your choice, check your account online, have notifications about CLS books or overdue warnings texted to you, request CLS books from your phone, and get access to library maps and hours (just in case you're in Georgetown and want to check out the university library ... because everyone loves libraries like I do, right? Right?). I was a beta tester for this, so take my word for it when I tell you it's just terrific.

Hit up m.wrlc.org on your phone and ooh and aah away!

Movies, events, and articles, oh my

This week certainly got off on an interesting footing, what with the snowstorm and all. Still, Chapel Hall looked lovely amidst the large flakes of snow falling around it -- or plastering it when the wind got a little feisty.

Anyway, what's new this week?

First, we just got a bunch of new DVDs in. Here's what you can look forward to:

Two new Superman movies
A few zombie flicks, including 28 Days Later, its sequel 28 Weeks Later, and Shaun of the Dead -- to go with Evil Dead and Army of Darkness
Some updates to our family-friendly collection, including both older and newer versions of Yours, Mine, and Ours, as well as Cheaper by the Dozen, Kung Fu Panda, and Wall-E
A couple nice adventure movies, like The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Gladiator, and Enchanted
A brief update to our Quentin Tarantino collection, including Death Proof and both Kill Bill movies

... as well as many more. These aren't the only new movies; we got quite a few more in a couple of weeks ago, which are now on the shelves, including the Sex and the City movie and some relics from a more civilized age, like Clueless and Sixteen Candles.

Aside from the new DVDs, we also have a new display up by the west entrance (the doors by the Mary Thornberry building) for the Big Read D.C. If you haven't heard of it yet, it's a nationwide program where each city picks one book to read, then they host a month's worth of fun activities based on that book.

We're excited about this because this year, they picked The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which is an absolute classic in Deaf literature. It's also really depressing -- and a good read. It's about this Deaf guy whose best friend -- the only other Deaf person he knows -- gets taken away, leaving him alone in a little town full of hearing people during the Great Depression. Four townspeople start visiting him so they can pour out all their secrets and feelings without being embarrassed, because he can't hear or understand them; he mostly just sits there while these people talk to thin air for hours on end. This isn't really a fun way for anyone to spend their time, especially for a smart Deaf guy who also happens to be incredibly isolated.

I always thought it was an unusually sympathetic treatment of a Deaf character for its era, and I'm thrilled to see that the entire city of Washington, D.C. is focused on this book this spring.

So, the display. We have approximately sixteen billion copies of Lonely Hunter (which seem to be going quickly), plus a few biographies of Carson McCullers, the eminently fascinating woman who wrote the book. We're also giving out bookmarks, reader's guides to the book, and flyers for a panel discussion we're hosting in April.

The panel discussion is going to be really neat, so save the date: April 7, 4-5 p.m., in the G-area of the JSAC (where Starbucks is). We'll have Deaf people discussing the book and what it means to them and Deaf culture in general. We're also calling for volunteers to participate in the panel, so if you're interested in throwing in your two cents about the book, come find me in MLC 1304 by the Deaf School Yearbooks, at the Service Desk in the Library, or e-mail me at james.mccarthy@gallaudet.edu. We'll be giving free gift certificates to the Bison Shop to anyone who sits on the panel! Useful if you're in need of Gallaudet-branded umbrellas, sweaters, lanyards, vehicles, animals, plants, or beer-bottle openers.

That about wraps it up for this week. Next week will be our first librarian profile!

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Question of the Week
My instructor wants me to find sources for a research paper, but she said they have to be peer-reviewed journal articles. What does "peer-reviewed" mean and why does it matter? How do I find peer-reviewed articles?
A lot of times, academic journals require peer review for new articles. What this means is that when an article is submitted to a journal, it has to go through a process where other experts in the same field read it and decide whether or not it's a good article. That decision depends on questions like: Is it well-researched? Are the methods consistently applied? Are the basic principles of the article accurate according to the reviewer's knowledge of the subject? Is the article as neutral as possible, or does the author seem to personally prefer one conclusion over another?

This is important because it's a quality-control process, which means only good, strong articles that are accurate, well-researched, and consistent are published. Because of that, you can trust those articles because you know the author didn't just make up a bunch of big words that sound nice together. Peer-reviewed articles can also be called "scholarly" articles because they're very high-quality works that are appropriate for use by scholars (like you!) in their academic research.

You can find peer-reviewed articles in most of our e-journal databases. When you search for articles, you will usually see a little box under the search box that says something like "Scholarly journals, including peer-reviewed" in ProQuest Research Library or "Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals" in Ebscohost: Academic Search Premier; the database will let you put a little check mark in that box so that only high-quality articles appear in your search results. You may need to hunt around for that little box if you're not familiar with the database you're using, but it's always worth the effort!