Friday, May 29, 2009

FM Class of 2009 Graduation

Tonight, the FM Class of 2009 will receive their degrees; degrees that link them forever to Fulton-Montgomery Community College and the Evans Library and Learning Commons. Since we're an inquisitive bunch of librarians we decided to do some research into the graduations. One of the databases that the Evans Library offers its users is CREDO Reference. We like this database (a place where information is organized and stored so that it can be found easily) because it provides a great starting point to find information on virtually any topic.

We entered the term "graduation" in the CREDO Reference search screen (you can do the same from home with a valid username and password, or from the Evans Library when we're open) and found a lot of information. One of the first resutls we found was an entry from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. It states that "graduation" means:

"Conferral or receipt of an academic degree or diploma marking completion of studies"

That's exactly what's happening for over 300 students tonight at FM! Congratulations to each and every one of them. But, we hope you don't stop there, there's a whole world of information out there waiting for you to discover. Luckily, CREDO makes finding that information a little easier. Another reason we like CREDO so much it that once we know what we're looking for - items (books, articles, etc.) that relate to graduation we can quickly access those items. CREDO is linked to virtually every other place you can find information in the Evans Library. When searching CREDO if you:
  • Want to find books on graduation? --> Click on the "Search FMCC Catalog" link
  • Want to find articles (from magazines, newspapers or journals)? --> Click on the "Academic Search Premier" link or the "MasterFile Premier" link

In either case you'll be taken to source of information that directly relate to your topic. Libraries are about making your academic life more efficient and we think CREDO does that pretty well.

If you're reading this blog and you're about to graduate or have already graduated your chance to use this cool tool hasn't passed. The Evans Library welcomes and encourages all FM alumni to use our resources. Stop by the Circulation Desk to learn how you can sign-up for an alumni borrower card. And once again, Congratulations Graduates!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Know What You're Getting...

For those of you who haven't been paying attention there's a site out there on the world wide web called Wikipedia. In a nutshell Wikipedia works best because it's people coming together to share the information they know. Sounds great, right? At it's worst, it's people coming together to share the information they know. Starting to see the problem? Without a voice of authority in the room there's bound to be some problems sooner or later. For Wikipedia these problems arise more often than not; people go to Wikipedia expecting to find accurate information. What they get is something less.

Case in point. earlier this week, a college student in Ireland fooled journalists all over the world by simply entering "facts" onto a Wikipedia entry. The lesson here is two-fold, I think. One, once again Wikipedia rears its ugly side - providing people with inaccurate information. The other lesson is just how popular Wikipedia has become. Journalists, professionals that we expect to adhere to a high standard of fact-finding are using Wikipedia as a one-stop source. Scary.

As the Instruction/Public Services Librarian at the Evans Library, I spend a lot of my time working with students so they can better understand how to evaluate the information they find. For websites like Wikipedia, the best place to begin to understand what you're looking at is to have this handout by your side. Having standards established before you start looking for information you want to use in a research paper, presentation or project makes the going all that much easier. And knowing how busy everyone is, this saves a lot of time!

Of course, if you have any questions you can always contact a Librarian! We're always available:

-Mike Daly, Instruction/Public Services Librarian

Monday, May 11, 2009

OK...Let's Recap (The semester, that is).

I'm sure we ALL realize that there are only a few days left until the end of the Spring 2009 semester. Soon, we will all be off to our summer fun spots. Some of you are staying around the area and some of you are heading out of the country. Some of you are graduating and some of you will be back next semester. So, what did we do this semester? What do we have to look forward to when we come back? Glad you asked...
Here at the Evans Library, we had an interesting semester. We launched a Facebook page and a blog (if you're reading this - you know that already). The thought behind both is to keep things a little lighter and to bring you some important information at the same time.

Like this for example: For the final week of the semester (May 11 - 15); the library will be open Monday - Thursday 8 am to 9 pm and on Friday 8 am to 4 pm.

And this: Summer hours will start on June 1st at 8 am. Visit the library's information page for more details.

Fun right? OK maybe not.
The library did adopt two dinosaurs as "unofficial" mascots. They hang out at the table near the entrance. We encourage you to take them with you from time-to-time. We just ask that you send us a picture of them out-and-about (send them to libinfo@fmcc.edu) and, of course, to bring them back home.

The library also sponsored a NCAA Tournament Challenge. "Nate the Great" topped the field of 20. Librarian Mike crushed me (Librarian Dan) in the final standings. The plan is to do it again next year. We'll try to find a couple of more fun things to do when we come back. Hopefully you'll come back and participate too. And if next year is like this year, there will be many, many, many of you here in the library again.

This year we topped well over 135,000 people through the door. On May 5th, we celebrated that fact with a little free cake. And who doesn't like free cake?!?


So, we here at the library hope that the rest of your semester goes well. We hope to see many of you again over the summer and next semester. Until then...take care.
- Dan Towne, Systems Librarian




























Monday, May 4, 2009

Welcome!

I'll admit right up front that I'm pretty new to 'blogging' and am not really sure where to start. While I'm generally very comfortable with technology and the online environment, some of the newer technologies (Do You Twitter?) tend to leave me wondering why?

I do, however, know why we decided to start this blog -- it is for people who want to know what's going on at one of my favorite places, the Evans Library @ FMCC. So, I'll start with an introduction and tell you a bit about what you'll see here in the future.

I am the Library Director here at FMCC and have been since 1995; I first came to the campus in 1992. Before that I worked in both public and school libraries. I originally came to FM to work with the Library computers. Of course, the only computers then were a few for the staff and I think one for the students...! (As you can see, I'm dating myself. )

But I think it's my way of telling you that I've been here a long time because I love this job, the people, and particularly the way the staff and others on campus work together to provide the best services they know how.

Since this was supposed to be just a short introduction, I think that's about it for now. The other librarians, staff, andI will take turns posting, so you'll get to know us all. I expect we'll all have some fun figuring out what to write for your reading pleasure!

Until then, please feel free to stop by and say hi, either virtually or in person! We look forward to seeing and hearing from you!

~ Mary Donohue, Library Director